Palm Beach, Broward County Appraisers Spar Over Property Taxes, Assessments
The gloves are coming off between the official home appraisers of Palm Beach and Broward counties. And it’s getting ugly.
According to the Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach County appraiser Gary Nikolits started the latest rift with his counterpart to the south by pointing out the much higher number of taxpayer protests filed in Broward County.
In a speech to members of the Economic Forum in West Palm Beach, Nikolits called his audience’s attention to a one-page handout showing that 5,482 Palm Beach County property owners protested their assessment last year.
In Broward County, 19,894 owners protested.
“I’ve been characterized by the Broward property appraiser as not being particularly taxpayer friendly,” Nikolits said. “In my opinion, taxpayer-friendly means you treat all property tax payers the same, that you don’t treat your friends, or political contributors differently.”
The Broward County Property Appraiser, Lori Parrish, countered that Nikolits’ numbers exaggerated the complaints filed by taxpayers.
Many of the protests were filed by homeowners who had missed the deadline for filing for a homestead exemption to which they were entitled.
Parrish said her workers encourage taxpayers to file protests so they can still reap the benefit of the homestead exemption.
“He’s just trying to save his political butt,” Parrish said of Nikolits. “Our office prides itself on being customer-friendly.”
In a world of shockingly expensive Florida mortgages and insurance, taxes are yet another escalating problem in the Sunshine State. And this is not the first time Nikolits and Parrish have clashed.
Parrish lowered assessments on commercial real estate by looking not just at fair market value but also at the income a property produces, an approach she considers to be friendlier to taxpayers.
Nikolits counters that the Florida Constitution requires county property appraisers to base their assessments on what a property would fetch in the open market. He said more complaints filed in Broward reflects on how Parrish is doing her job.
“I think a measure of being taxpayer-friendly is how many people actually complain about the job that you’re doing,” Nikolits said. “If four times as many people are complaining in Broward County as here, then I think I can reverse that and say I’m probably a little bit more taxpayer-friendly.”
In the meantime, Nikolits said homeowners shouldn’t expect tax assessments to fall this year. Despite low Florida mortgage rates, a slumping housing market has caused prices to plateau, not plummet - with exceptions such as downtown West Palm Beach’s condo market.
“There are pockets in this county that have seen significant decreases in market values, particularly in those areas that have been overdeveloped with condominiums and townhouse projects,” Nikolits said.
Continue reading in the Palm Beach Post …
