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By MARK HOLAN
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Hillsborough County failed to collect $2.6 million in residential building permit fees during fiscal year 2005, the county’s internal performance auditor said Wednesday.
Kathleen Mathews said developers routinely paid about $200 less for each permit than what should have been required.
“That’s pretty extraordinary,†Commissioner Ronda Storms said.
Mathews’ discovery is contained in a draft audit of the county’s Planning and Growth Management Department due to be published later this month.
The amount of missed revenue could be much higher.
Permit fees are based building values, which are supposed be updated annually.
Department Director Bruce McClendon said the method of determining values hadn’t been updated since 2002, due to changes in the formula.
He said the department is updating the permit fees, and will meet with developers Friday to go over the changes.
In a matter separate from the audit findings, Mathews received a critical job evaluation from county commissioners Wednesday.
Under the county charter, commissioners hire and fire the internal performance auditor as well as the county administrator and the county attorney.
Commissioner Brian Blair, a big supporter of the auditor’s office, questioned Matthew’s leadership skills in the wake of recent turnover in her four-person office.
“I’m not good at hiring employees,†Mathews admitted. “It’s a new skill to me.â€
Commissioner Tom Scott said there are “serious problems†in the office.
“We don’t question your auditing ability, we question your leadership,†Commissioner Ken Hagan said.
Blair suggested Mathews could be retained as an auditor, but no longer oversee the office.
Commissioners asked the county’s personnel department to review the details surrounding the departure of Mathews’ recent staff hires and report back to the board July 19.
Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or mholan@tampatrib.com
Nathan don’t feel too bad. Our taxes on a half acre lot went up 158% this year from $3,400 to $7,400. Add to that the fact that they (Hillsborough County) is charging us 25% interest on top of that it is now up to $8400 and will probably hit 9k before we scrape up the money to pay them. Kind of like dealing with a loan shark. Only difference is of course if you don’t pay the county they take your land. It is sad that they do not care about us. Being Floirda natives we feel totally betrayed.
Know its time to stop issuing building permits until everyone pays up, if the same developer that wants a new permit owes the county money, then don’t issue one until he pays for what he owes. Imagin telling the IRS that they couldn’t collect back taxes hahaha.
1 million seconds is roughly 10 days
1 billion seconds is around 33 years. big difference people.
Since Raymond brought up property taxes, I’d like to know why our property taxes have not come down, with all the new homes being built South and East of Riverview, in Hillsborough County there should be some kind of decrease. I know my taxes are running $4,224.00 a year if most everyone in this area and North Hillsborough are paying close to the same and more the county commissioners are really putting the s_ _ _ _, to all of us. It’s going to take everyone to start putting a stop to there greed and mis use of money. SHAME, SHAME.
The county has no ground to try and collect this money or even try and cry about it. Remember when Hillsborough County stole money from people by increasing the fine when the county could not even post paid traffic tickets in a timely matter and then stating to the public that there is no ground for refunds. Just think about all those people that got stuck with a suspended license. Hillsborough county should be taken to court and held accoutable for its mismanagement of my money and its people.
Rob Chiodo
Awww Gee poor ole county forgot to get 2.6 million??? Kind of hard to feel sorry for them when they took in an aditional 5.9 BILLION in three years from us in property taxes for allowing all that new building. Now let me get this right.The county forgot to collect 2.6 million from the very developers that built the subdivisions that the county approved and in turn made them 5.9 Billion. They might forget to charge them but you can bet your bottom dollar they never forget to collect property taxes. Go figure
Yeah! Like Rhonda Storms can keep a staff member...how hilarious!
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Posted by D. Blue, Apollo Beach on 06/08 at 11:04 AM
How about indexing our Homestead exemption at the same time!!!