I LOVE math. It pulls back the curtain of deceit. In November 2025 the Village made a preemptive move to collect Fire services via a non-Ad Valorem charge. I had previously made up a spreadsheet to calculate the taxes of the surrounding municipalities so this is easy to do with real numbers.
For the 2025 tax bill (the one we got last November) the millage rate in the Village was 7.4. Thus on a $500,000 property valuation, for a homesteaded single family home, the village collected $3,330. Now if we look at the budget for that year, fire was $5,730,670 on 46.905M of revenue. This may be simplified but it’s a left pocket or right pocket question. That was 12.21% of the total budget. Thus for that year, on a $500,000 valuation, $406.76 was collected by the Village to pay for our fire services. OK
Now, let’s look at the 500k collected each year by the Village for Stormwater as a non-Ad Valorem charge. Let’s assume that there will be a similar “differences” in what condos are charged Vs. single family homes. Jupiter collects this based upon the SF of a property for instance. The single family non-ad valorem charge in 2024 was $90.56 for the Village to collect 500k. Thus, to collect the 5.73M for Fire that year the single family home non-Ad valorem charge would need to be (5,730,670/500,000) 11.46 * 90.56 = $1,038. Again, that single family home contributed $407 that year for Fire services.
But if your home was valued at 2M with a 50k exemption then you paid 14,430 to the Village with (12.21%) $1,762 used for Fire Services. If that had been collected this as a non-Ad Valorem you would have paid the same as everyone else, $1,038.
This is not a tax savings. This is a tax shift. A shift from the higher valued properties to the lowered valued properties. It’s just that simple.
