Port St. Lucie - Monday December 5, 2022: The City of Port St. Lucie has one of the lowest municipal tax rates comparatively to the 20 most populous cities in Florida, according to an annual Millage Rate Benchmarking Study for FY22/23.
Property taxes, also called ad valorem taxes, are the largest single revenue source of the City’s General Fund. Property taxes are used to pay for many of the primary services of government, including police protection, park maintenance, recreation activities and city planning.
The Millage Rate Benchmarking Study ranked Port St. Lucie as having the fourth lowest municipal property tax rate out of 22 cities. The study looked at the 20 most populous cities in Florida, along with our neighboring cities of Stuart and Fort Pierce.
The full Millage Rate Benchmarking Study can be found online at www.CityofPSL.com/taxes.
In accordance with the City’s Strategic Plan, the City’s property tax rate (also called the millage rate), and ranking among these other cities, has steadily decreased since the study was first conducted in fiscal year 2019/2020:
· In 2020, PSL was ranked tenth.
· In 2021, PSL was ranked seventh.
· In 2022, PSL was ranked fifth.
· In 2023, PSL was ranked fourth.
The City of Port St. Lucie’s millage rate is 5.3000. The millage rate is the tax rate used to calculate a resident’s property tax, which is the rate of tax per thousand dollars of taxable value. If the millage rate is 5.3000, then a resident is paying $5.30 in taxes for every $1,000 of taxable property taxes.
There are more than a dozen different taxing authorities in St. Lucie County. The millage rate approved by the Port St. Lucie City Council makes up only two lines on the tax bill received by City residents: City of Port St. Lucie and the City of PSL Voted Debt (which was voter approved to pay for the Crosstown Parkway).
Those two portions make up only about 22% of the total tax bill. Some of the other taxing authorities, which set their own millage rates, include St. Lucie County, St. Lucie County School District, the Fire District and the South Florida Water Management District.
To learn more about Port St. Lucie’s Budget, visit www.CityofPSL.com/Budget.