Town to create tax calculator for Optimist Park municipal bonds

Government By Alexandra Herrera, Reporter Thursday, June 30, 2022

     The Town of Miami Lakes is preparing to ask voters on Nov. 8 to approve a $25 million municipal bond offering to fund improvements at Optimist Park.

     To help property owners better understand how paying for the bonds will affect their tax bills, the town is preparing a search engine that it hopes to launch in August.

      “Residents can plug in either their address or their Folio number from the Property Appraiser’s office and it will give them what the estimated impact on their monthly property tax bill will be,” Miami Lakes Town Manager Edward Pidermann said on Jun 21. 

      Taxes will be based on the taxable value on a home as determined by the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser.

     Factors such as the Save Our Homes cap, homestead exemptions and widow’s and veteran’s exemptions go into determining the taxable value, Pidermann said.

     The levy will also be impacted by the latest interest rates for municipal bonds and adjusted by the county’s 2022 property values that will be released July 1.

     Earlier this year when interest rates were lower, the town estimated a property owner would pay $72 per year, or $5.98 per month, based on a 2021 average taxable value of $233,368.

     Meanwhile, the council is working on language about the bond that will appear on the ballot.

     A special call meeting of the council will be held July 25 so that the ordinance for the bond language will get two readings in time for it to appear on the ballot.