The Clerk & Comptroller of Palm Beach just issued their annual report for the tax collection and spending for Palm Beach County for the year ending September 2014. CLICK HERE to go to a copy of that report but here are a few notable items from it.
- In Fiscal Year 2014, we saw significant economic increases for Palm Beach County.
Property tax revenues increased almost $29 million over the prior fiscal year, a 3.5 percent increase (see Property
Taxes, page 9). Sales tax increased by $5.3 million, tourist development tax by $3.3 million and local option gas
tax by $1.4 million over the prior fiscal year - Palm Beach County grew in FY 2014 – both in its tax base and population. The County saw property values increase,
with overall tax bills at $3.14 billion in 2014 – a $90 million increase from 20131. The County’s population also grew, with
approximately 1.36 million people calling Palm Beach County home in 20142. It is the fifth consecutive year of population
growth for Palm Beach County, which remains the third most-populous county in Florida. - The number of jobs also grew in Palm Beach County during FY 2014, with employers adding 12,300 nonagricultural jobs in the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach Metro Division, a 2.3 percent increase from a year ago4. The sectors adding jobs included Trade, Transportation and Utilities, Retail Trade and Professional and Business Services. Palm Beach County’s unemployment rate fell during the fiscal year as did the nation’s unemployment rate. The County rate fell 13 percent5 to 6 percent whereas the national rate fell 18.6 percent to 5.7 percent. These rates measure the percentage of the workforce that is unemployed and looking for paid employment. The County rate hit a high of 6.9 percent and a low of 5.6 percent during the fiscal year.
- Palm Beach County’s Top Five Taxpayers for 20143
1. Florida Power & Light Company………………………………………………………… $77,409,495
2. Town Center at Boca Raton Trust……………………………………………………….. $7,506,035
3. BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc……………………………………………………$ 5,858,674
4. US Sugar Corporation………………………………………………………………………….. $5,183,276
5. Comcast of Florida………………………………………………………………………………. $4,954,703 - Palm Beach County’s Principal Employers
Top Private Employers as of 20137
1. Tenet Heathcare…………………………………………………………………………………………… 6,100
2. NextEra Energy……………………………………………………………………………………………… 3,804
3. G4S……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3,000
4. Hospital Corp. of America…………………………………………………………………………….. 2,714
5. Bethesda Memorial Hospital……………………………………………………………………….. 2,643 - Palm Beach County’s real estate market extended the turnaround that began in 2013, with numbers improving
from the previous year for both median sales price and closed sales. The median sales price for a single-family home rose
to $275,000 in 2014, a 4.2 percent increase from the revised median sales price of $264,000 for a single-family home in
2013 (originally reported at $244,000). There were 16,207 sales closed8 on single-family homes in Palm Beach County, a
10.9 percent increase from 14,620 closings in 2013. Another important metric for measuring the health of Palm
Beach County real estate is the number of mortgages and deeds recorded in Palm Beach County, as well as the number of new foreclosure lawsuits filed with the Clerk & Comptroller. Mortgages and deeds recorded by the Clerk & Comptroller were down from the prior year, with mortgages falling 22.6 percent to 35,902 and
deeds falling 2.7 percent to 73,603. However, a continued positive sign for the County: new foreclosure cases filed in Palm Beach County decreased once again, falling 38.1 percent to 6097, versus 9857 cases filed in FY 201310. - The trend of increasing residential building permits issued reversed itself after 4 years of steadily climbing. There were
3,960 permits issued for single-family and multi-family units in 2014, a 21.6 percent decrease from 5,051 permits in 2013. Most of the decline may be attributed to multi-family units which were down 38 percent. The sharp rise in long-term mortgage rates, high home prices and tight credit criteria contributed to the decline. The total value of all residential permits fell 2 percent.
The item that always shocks me is that the of the total tax bill the Palm Beach County School Board is 54%, the County as a whole (including fire rescue and the sheriff) is 32% where about half of the county budget or 16% of every tax dollar collected is for the sheriff and fire rescue. We spend an enormous amount of money on educations and
