WILDWOOD, FL (352today.com) – The City of Wildwood is apologizing to taxpayers for an error in the tax calculation for fiscal year 2024.

This means ad valorem tax bills will be a few bucks more than originally anticipated.

The city issued a release this week saying it discovered the error and would be holding a new budget hearing on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. to consider corrected data.

The Wildwood City Commission adopted a millage rate of 2.8287 at its meeting on Sept. 25.

RELATED: Wildwood Commission adopts 2024 budget. Lowers millage rate, increases city staff

The city says that rate was incorrectly presented as the rolled-back rate due to a calculation error. The city says the actual rolled-back rate is 2.8051, a difference of 0.0236.

“The Commission thought, based upon information provided to them by the finance team, that they were adopting the rolled-back rate,” said Cassandra Smith, the city’s chief financial officer and assistant city manager.  “To correct the error, the city must republish its budget summary and a notice of tax increase and hold a new public hearing… So, the Commission will adopt the same rate as they did in September, but it will be recognized as a tax increase.”

It’s all a bit confusing and to call it a tax increase is basically semantics. Since the millage rate the commission adopted is greater than the rate they thought they were adopting, the result is the perception of an increase. In reality, it’s still less than the prior year’s tax rate of 3 mill.

City officials sought approval from the state to adopt the corrected rolled-back rate but were unsuccessful.

“Ideally, the City would have liked to be able to adopt the actual rolled-back rate at the new public hearing but there is no provision in the Florida statute to allow this at this point,” said Smith. “Sumter County is too far into the tax assessment process to change the millage rate. So, the Commission will adopt the same rate as they did in September, but it will be recognized as a tax increase.”

The 2024 fiscal year began October 1.

What’s the impact on your wallet?
The millage rate is the ad valorem tax assessed for each $1,000 of value. State law requires each taxing authority to determine the rolled-back rate, often called the rollback rate, as part of the budgeting process.

According to the Florida Department of Revenue, the rolled-back millage rate is generally the amount of property taxes the property owner would owe if there were no change to the taxing authority’s budget.

The language the city is required to use in the public notice makes it seem like a big deal.

“The difference amounts to $2.36 per $100,000 in property valuation,” said Smith. “So, a house with a taxable value of $300,000 will pay an additional $7.08 on their tax bill over what they would have if the rolled-back rate were adopted.”

Even at the higher rate, the city’s millage is still the lowest in recent times.

“We have kept track dating back to 1988 and it is the lowest since that year,” said Smith. “1988 was the highest at 6.623 mils. It has progressively decreased over the years, with this year being the lowest.”

“We went into this budget process with every intention of adopting the rolled-back rate,” said Mayor Ed Wolf. “We are acutely aware of how the economy and post-pandemic market disruptions have squeezed residents and their families and are doing everything we can to mitigate the negative effects of those forces.”

“First and foremost, I apologize to our residents for the error,” said Smith. “We scrutinized our financial data but did not discover the mistake in our worksheet until now. I take full responsibility for the oversight and have implemented additional quality-control protocols to ensure it does not happen again.”