Village of Estero tax rate increase proposed if council doesn't consider rollback

Estero residents may see an 8% property tax increase for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 if there is no rollback.

Estero Village Council approved a resolution Wednesday with a proposed rate of 0.7400 mills or $0.7400 per $1,000 of assessed property value and set public hearings for Sept. 11 and 18. That means a house with a taxable value of $400,000 would pay $296 per year for village services.

The proposed rate is an increase from this year's rolled back rate of $0.6850 per $1,000 assessed property value.There were no questions from the council and no public comment on the tax rate ordinance.

The village's proposed FY24/25 budget is $91.1 million, up from $46.3 million in the FY23/24 budget. Public hearings will be held on the budget during the same meetings as the tax rate.The coming fiscal year's budget includes general fund expenditure of $9.64 million, up from $8.97 million this year. It also includes capital projects of $79.89 million, up from $35.5 million.

What is a rollback?

A tax rate rollback means a slightly lower tax rate for most of the property owners while maintaining the same revenue for the city because of higher tax revenue. Lee County's taxable values rose by 9.65% countywide. Some communities saw bigger spikes than others.

The next meetings on the tax rate will be public hearings on Sept. 11 and Sept. 18, 2024, both at 5:05 p.m.