Wewa votes not to raise millage for 2023-24 fiscal year
The millage rate for property taxes in Wewahitchka will be no higher than it has been for the past several years, and could come in lower, depending on what city commissioners do in the next several weeks.
At the city’s July 28 meeting, commissioners unanimously voted to leave the city’s millage rate unchanged at 6.1133 mills, so that remains the ceiling, as per state law.
The rollback rate, which is the amount needed to retain this year’s ad valorem revenue at the same level, is 5.3768 mills, which is 0.7365 mills below that of the tentative millage rate.
“We will have to advertise that there’s an increase in taxes even though there’s not an increase in the millage rate,” said Wewahitchka Mayor “The income will be greater.”
Because Wewa saw growth in its tax base, keeping the millage unchanged will yield higher property tax revenues.
Property Appraiser Mitch Burke said Wewahitchka saw a 17.32 percent growth in its tax base this year and a 34.1 percent increase over the last two years.
This brings the city’s overall taxable value to about $83.5 million. Therefore, should the millage rate remain the same, the city can expect to bring in about $88,400 in addition to what they received in the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.