Jacksonville City Council votes not to raise millage rates in the 2023 tax year

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville taxpayers will not see property tax rates increase next year, but with rising property values, tax bills may still increase.

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Jacksonville City Council voted unanimously against raising property taxes. It now has a few weeks to consider lowering property taxes in the city.

City Council held an emergency vote on a resolution last night advising the property appraiser of rolled-back rates for the 2023 tax year, and the unanimous vote reveals rates won’t increase.

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According to the city’s website, the property tax rate is referred to as a millage, and it varies by taxing district within the county. Last year, the average rate among all districts was 17.2%, and charts from 2021 indicate that the average millage was 17.7%.

However, a drop in millage doesn’t mean your property taxes will lower. While the millage rate could be lower than last year, if your property value is higher, you could pay more in property taxes.

There was urgency from the council to get the millage rollback figured out last night.

“We also would have to advertise the rollback rate if we only wanted to collect the same amount of dollars,” said Councilman Matt Carlucci. “[What] we collected last year has to go to the property appraiser.”

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Carlucci also said that cutting the millage rate too much could hurt the city.

“It is always fun to say I want to cut taxes, but the other side of the sword is that you’re cutting services. You might be cutting back on grass cutting in your parks and your right away,” he said.

Carlucci also added that other things like public safety could be cut out if this rollback wasn’t voted on last night.

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