2007 County Tax Roll Down 2 Billion Dollars

2007 County Tax Roll Down 2 Billion Dollars
April 11, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

Brevard County Property Appraiser Jim Ford has released his preliminary estimate for the 2007 Tax Roll value. Ford predicts a decline on taxable value of at least 2 billion dollars from 39 billion dollars in 2006 to 37 billion dollars in 2007.

Ford said the reductions in value will challenge taxing authorities to fund their budgets at current millage levels. Ford said the taxing authorities will not be able to receive windfall revenue as the county general fund did last year by simply keeping their tax rate relatively stable. The county general fund revenue grew 28 percent in 2006 over the 2005 revenue figure.

According to Ford, this year's lower tax roll value will force taxing authorities to be held accountable because if they want more revenue they will have to publicly vote to increase their tax rate. He said they normally obtain this revenue from the rising tax roll value.

Jim ford said "this year's decline in value is attributable to a sluggish real estate market last year both in terms of selling prices and total sales activity." For example, Ford said that the median selling price for single family residences declined by 22 percent and the volume of sales declined 34 percent from 2005 levels.

According to Ford, high insurance costs had an adverse impact on the market value of property especially income producing properties.

All new construction was also down approximately 64 percent in 2006 compared to the prior year.