Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell is setting up shop at the new Town Hall trailers on Fort Myers Beach next Monday and Tuesday from 8:30AM to 4:30PM. Caldwell is working on getting Fort Myers Beach properties back on the tax rolls and needs your input
Fort Myers Beach lost over 40% of its taxable revenue thanks to the property destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. As homeowners and businesses rebuild – or decide not to – Caldwell wants to get an accurate assessment of how the rebuilding is going.
Caldwell also wants to make sure residents are educated on how to keep their Homestead exemption. Homeowners are able to not live in their homes for 3 years and keep their exemption before Caldwell has to ask the Legislature for help if more time is needed.
Caldwell told Beach Talk Radio that his main goal with the Fort Myers Beach office hours is to find out how many people are actually back in their homes or condos, do they plan to return, how many residents will need more than three years to get back home, and how the condo buildings are coming along.
According to the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department there are 162 condo buildings on Fort Myers Beach. Some are open, many are not. We learned about the many different issues condos are dealing with to get back open at a special Town Council meeting held at Bay Oaks earlier this month with condo presidents and residents. They range from getting financing to insurance to getting elevator parts.
Caldwell is trying to get as big a picture look of the progress of the rebuild as possible, including what structures may still need to come down.
Revenuers gonna revenue. Hope there’s a lot of questions about how well the tax dollars already paid helped out coming in from fema.