Fire chief predicts millage rate hike if homestead exemption referendum passes
Fort Myers Beach Fire Chief Scott Wirth is forecasting millage rate hikes if a state referendum to increase the homestead property tax exemption up from $50,000 to $250,000 passes in November. While the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District Board of Fire Commissioners approved Wirth’s request to freeze the current millage rate at 2.76 mills per thousand dollars of property value, Wirth said the district would have to increase that rate if the homestead exemption increase passes. To account for the homestead exemption’s impact in the first year, when it would rise from $50,000 to a $150,000 exemption, Wirth said the millage rate would go up from 2.76 to 2.93 mills. In the second ...
