about my county st johns county florida

With five days to go until the primary election for St Johns County Commissioners District 1, 3 and 5, I’m just going to be blunt here.

I received an email from “SJCountyNeighbors” accusing Commissioners Dean and Whitehurst of raising our “property taxes in each of the last four years by about 10% on average.”

That is a lie intended to sway those who don’t understand how property taxes work.  The lie is that these commissioners intentionally charged residents more money in property taxes.

The facts:

• Property values have soared over the past few years. This is outside the control of the commissioners.
• Property tax calculations are set by the state on millage rates of one tenth percent for every $1,000 in property value.
• Commissioners have two choices in setting the millage rate.  Keep it flat year to year or roll the rate back to the rate allowed by the state.
• The millage rate has remained flat for four years.
• Because property values have gone up, simple math says that property taxes will go up.

Property tax is the primary mechanism that funds the operations of the county. 

Could something different have been done? State law provides the opportunity to reduce the millage rate, called a “rollback.” Rolling back the millage rate cuts the county budget. Forever.

What is a Rollback?

Think of a rollback this way. Your company has decided to give everyone a pay cut – business is not good.  Your pay was $60,000 but it rolled back to $58,824.  Things get better for the company, so for the next four years you get a 3% increase to your base. Had the pay reduction (rollback) not occurred, you would have received $7,531 in pay raises over the four years.  Because 3% was added on to the reduced amount, the four increases provide you only $6,206 in pay raises.  You have lost $1,324 over four years because of that original pay deduction.

Now think about that same concept with a $25 million rollback to the property tax millage rate  What gets cut? We have to “keep the lights on” – basic safety needs. What then is considered expendable?  And no, I don’t think Commissioner Joseph’s suggestion to use Kevin Kline’s approach to cutting the US budget in the 1993 movie Dave works in real life.

Once a rollback is taken, it has a long-term impact on the funding of the county’s operations. That is not to be taken lightly. That is why the Board of Commissioners did not take the rollback in the past four years, supported by all five commissioners (including Joseph) for 2024.

Don’t forget the lie

But let’s not miss the fact that the claim of increasing property tax is a lie. 

Are we willing to elect commissioners who lie?