If you live in Lee County chances are you received a property tax notice warning you could be paying more.
However, thousands of you received the wrong notice by mistake.
The Lee County Property Appraisers office sent out 650,000 TRIM notices or proposed real estate taxes for the upcoming year.
David Stevenson of North Fort Myers said he places extra money into a mutual fund yearly to cover the cost of his taxes in anticipation they will increase and hurt his pocketbook.
His taxes this coming year are anticipated to increase.
“Sticker shock is mild. My property last year was $1.4 million. This year it was $ 2.6 million. That's over a 50% increase on the property value. If it wasn't for the exemptions it would be a real hit in the pocket,” Stevenson said.
He's talking about the Homestead Exemption, a discount available to those who live in Florida year-round.
“If there is a year where the market goes up 25% you only go up 3% for what you pay taxes on,” explained Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell.
The notices show folks what they're paying currently, what they'll pay if there are no tax hikes and what they'll pay if the county approves an anticipated tax increase.
“We definitely have a low tax rate. For example, our county tax rate is proposed to be under 4 mills, a county can go up to 10 mills,” Caldwell explained.
NBC2 has learned that 24,000 notices went out containing the wrong year of taxes by mistake.
“As the print job was being assembled one of the batches reprinted 2023. There won't be any cost to the taxpayer. They're getting reprinted and everyone will get that 2024 the middle of this week,” Caldwell stated.
Property owners like Carolyn Manto visited the property appraiser's office to ensure their taxes are accurate.
“I came today to make sure that I will be eligible for the homestead rebate in 2025, apparently I had missed the cutoff,” Manto said.