Property-value decline largest in Manatee history

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MANATEE COUNTY — Manatee County officials are bracing themselves for another tough year of budget cuts after the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office recently announced property values are down more than 13% countywide.

The city of Palmetto and a special taxing district within it saw the highest drops in value — 18.86% and 19.51%, respectively — according to a preliminary report released by the Property Appraiser’s office June 1.

The East Manatee Fire Rescue District, which covers East County communities such as Tara and Creekwood to the west, Heritage Harbour and GreyHawk Landing to the north and Lakewood Ranch to the south and east, saw the second most-severe drop in property values, with a 16.15% decrease.

Other districts that comprise the East County also saw significant drops. Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue District by 14.25%, Palm-Aire MSTU by 12.72% and the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District by 13.83%.

In all, the four East County districts’ declines translate to $1.977 billion loss in property tax revenues for the county.

Manatee County Property Appraiser Charles Hackney said the decline in property values was slightly more than the 10-12% decrease countywide his office had expected.

“It’s just a general decline in the market values,” Hackney said of the changes. “We had a situation a couple of years ago where there was a rapid rise (of values). This is just a correction of the market.”

Hackney said the new home values are based on sales of real property.

Hackney said he had not analyzed why the East County’s values had declined so drastically, but the city of Palmetto’s numbers could be attributed specifically to the area’s high concentration of condominium units.
The Property Appraiser’s Office is expected to release its finalized report July 1.

The preliminary taxable assessed value of Manatee County properties is down by about $3.8 billion compared to last year and now is estimated at about $24.8 billion.

Manatee officials already had been preparing for the cuts but will have to make more adjustments once the final numbers come in.

“This is the biggest reduction in property taxes that we’ve had,” said Jim Seuffert, director of the county’s Financial Management Department. “We’ve had declining revenues over the past years, but this is the largest reduction in property tax revenue that we’ve seen in any one year.”

County Administrator Ed Hunzeker already has made recommendations to the Manatee County Board of County Commissioners for reducing the budget without a property tax increase, including the elimination of more than 50 employee positions and about $1.4 million in cuts to public works projects and services, among other items.

Seuffert said the budget cuts will impact nearly every county department and many services to residents, but the county plans to lessen the impact by using some of the reserve money it accumulated before the real estate market began to decline.

Services affected by the cuts can be phased out as necessary to adjust to future revenue levels.

BY THE NUMBERS
Cumulatively, the county budget has declined by about $121.5 million over the past four years. The recommended net budget for fiscal year 2011 is $469,147,894, excluding Port Manatee. That amount is about $27.8 million less than the fiscal year 2010 adopted net budget, also excluding Port Manatee.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].