Property valuations up in North Fort Myers
Overall property valuation in North Fort Myers is up this year as are valuations throughout Lee County.
According to preliminary numbers from the Lee County Property Appraiser’s Office, valuations within the Bayshore Fire District went up an estimated 4.80 percent over 2016, while the North Fort Myers Fire District valuation increased 4.54 percent.
Bayshore’s overall valuation rose to $373,663,000, up from $356,563,000 in 2016. North Fort Myers overall taxable valuation rose from $2.488 billion in 2016 to $2.601 billion this year.
David Rice, North Fort Myers fire chief, said increased taxable valuation could help the district financially, especially since the official numbers, to be released by July 1, tend to be at or better than the preliminary estimates.
“Things are looking a lot better. I feel really good about it,” Rice said. “This is really going to help us with our capital. I look forward to seeing the preliminary numbers.”
This is a continuation of good news for Rice, who last year sought and got a referendum to raise the property tax rate to 3.50 mills. This, coupled with the increase in valuation, could bring $2 million more into the district.
“We want to try to buy new trucks and fire engines. We really want to try to work on our capital and be able to get new staff vehicles, extrication equipment and most important, build up our reserves,” Rice said. “We used them extensively during the recession, so we’re trying to get those back up.”
For Bayshore, a much smaller district, the news is also better. However, unlike North Fort Myers, even with the valuation increase, finances are still in recovery mode following a recession that saw district revenue cut almost in half.
Bayshore Fire Chief Larry Nisbet said the increase in valuation is nice, but overall valuation is still fare below what is was a decade ago.
“We haven’t seen a huge increase in this area before that, then we took a 43.7 percent decrease. With the numbers the last two years we’re headed in the right direction,” Nisbet said.
For the past several years, Bayshore has had to get federal funding to staff half its positions. Nisbet said the valuation increase could bring in about $58,000 more into the budget, enough for maybe one full-time employee.
“That money will be for operational costs. It depends on what our insurance renewals are and we’ve just started the budget process,” Nisbet said. “We’re still not at the point where we can support all our full-time personnel without grant assistance.”
Bayshore has a grant that expires at the end of the year, Nisbet said. The district has applied for another grant, but has yet to hear the results.
New construction could provide more tax dollars for the district in the future as development has started in the Lee County section of Babcock Ranch and off Pritchett Road with the lagoon development that’s turning dirt there now.
Nisbet said he hopes with those, the district will “get off the welfare of the grants” and back to supporting itself.
Once again, all the taxing districts countywide saw increases in overall valuation.
In Cape Coral, the city’s estimated taxable property valuation rose an estimated 7.87 percent from last year, down only slightly from the 8.37 percent from the previous year and slightly better than the 7.75 from 2015, marking the fifth straight year of value increases. The total taxable value in Cape Coral is estimated at $12.991 billion up from the $12.043 billion final figure.
Fort Myers’ estimated valuation increased 8.09 percent, Sanibel increased by 5.87 percent, Fort Myers Beach was up 4.84 percent, Bonita Springs increased 5.93 percent, and Estero went up 4.64 percent.
Overall, Lee County’s estimated overall taxable value went up 6.56 percent from last year’s $67.887 billion to $72.343 billion.
The numbers do not necessarily mean more money for the taxing districts ? local governing board each must set their tax rates and have the option of adopting “rollback” rates. The rollback rate is the millage rate needed to bring in the same amount of revenue as the previous year.
“This is the start of the season where we are required to notify all the taxing authorities what they can look forward to in property values,” said Kenneth Wilkinson, Lee County Property Appraiser. “It tells them what they can set for the millage.”
Once the preliminary numbers are set, Wilkinson will also give taxing authorities the rollback millage rate, a number property owners may want to review.
“It tells taxpayers who is raising taxes and by how much,” Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said all the numbers will likely change between now and July 1 when the preliminary numbers are set, which in recent years have trended upward. Those figures will be sent to Tallahassee for state approval. Wilkinson said he has never had an assessment declined by the state.
TRIM notices are mailed to property owners in August. Property owners will then have 25 days to resolve any disagreement in value with the property appraiser.