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Re: Maintenance Fees Out-Of-Sight (by Melanie B.):

jayjay wrote:

Could it be that taxes have skyrocketed in Florida due to skyrocketing insurance rates that the state, all cities and all counties (not just homeowners and businesses) have to pay.

It must have been very expensive to clean up debris and repair major damage after all the hurricanes, especially the 5 in 2005? They may have very well spent it all with such major wide spread devastation and may have no reserves left for future hurricane damage. This is probably one of the main reasons for skyrocketing taxes in the state of Florida.

melanieb44 wrote:

Regarding the taxes in FL, you are right on - they have gone sky high. You asked, "What have they done with the $?". They spent it all. They claim it is all for the increased services they provide, but I don't see any. Homeowner's and business owner's are ready to revolt here. The governer wants to reduce taxes because of all the complaints that people can't afford to live here and businesses can't afford to stay in business. Cities and towns are complaining that they have to cut services if they are forced to cut tax rates.

Hi....actually, the homeowner's insurance and the taxes are two seperate issues. One doesn't depend on the other.

The insurance has gone sky high due to the hurricanes.

The taxes are set by the local asessment person for each county. For taxes, the law is that homesteaded properties are capped at 3% each year, but non-steaded properties are not. So this is why commercial properties, landlords, snowbirds, etc. (any non-steaded property) has the tax rates skyrocketing out of control.

As far as the hurricane clean-up is concerned, we can thank FEMA for paying for most of the landscape clean-up. Landscaping, for the most part, is not insurable so many assessments were made to replace the landscaping. The special assessments due to the hurricane were ON TOP of the taxes.