The truth-in-millage notice, commonly known as the TRIM notice, that every property owner receives each year is supposed to give an estimate of proposed property taxes and assessments. But it apparently has lacked a degree of truth, not to mention the word “millage.”
State Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, is hoping to fix that by requiring more relevant information in the notices. His 10-page bill requires the addition of three columns to the five existing columns in the standard property tax notice: “Millage Rate Last Year,” “Millage Rate This Year IF PROPOSED Budget Change is Made,” and “Millage Rate IF NO Budget Change is Made.”
The idea is to actually be helpful to property owners.
Given that the property tax is a simple combination of the millage rate multiplied times the assessed property value, Coffee Talk has to wonder how such an oversight was not caught sooner.
The bill passed through its committee hurdle on a 14-0 vote.