Sticker shock: Cape Coral residents hit with unexpected property tax hikes

This is the time of year when people start paying their property taxes, but what happens when you get your bill and it’s more than you expected?

One Cape Coral woman said her taxes increased by over $1,000.

WINK News reporter Asha Patel spoke with the woman to find out what she would do about the increase.

She was caught off guard when she saw that she had to pay $1000 more than she thought she did, and she wasn’t the only one.

She said many of her friends saw increases as well. She wonders how people can make these payments if they’re not prepared.

No one enjoys paying bills, especially when the bill is not the amount you anticipated.

“I knew that I was in the 5’s, why is this in the 6’s? And then I started asking around, and it wasn’t just me,” said Cindy Jenkins.

Jenkins got her property tax estimate in the mail; it said she owed about $5,688, but when she got the bill, she actually had to pay $6,679.

“Much higher than the estimated and composed taxes would be. Therefore, I’m just wondering how they can send out one piece of paper then actually send it out for a thousand dollars more a month later,” Jenkins expressed to WINK News.

We spoke with Matt Caldwell, the property appraiser for Lee County and told him about Jenkins’ experience.

“There’s two things people want to look at,” he said “First of all, the tax bill reflects not only the ad valorem taxes, meaning that the taxes that are levied based on the value of your home, and that’s the process that we manage through the property appraiser’s office, but the tax bill also has got the non-ad valorem, those flat fee charges.”

He said those flat fee charges won’t show up on the proposed taxes because it’s not based on the value of your home; he added taxes are going up, especially after COVID and could keep going up.

“We saw 10, 20, 30% increases in our market, and that really is historically unheard of; that slowed over the last year, and for our taxpayer’s sake, hopefully, that’s not the trend going forward, but it certainly has been a substantial change over the last decade,” he said.

The Lee County Property Appraiser said hurricanes and the number of people moving to this area contribute to why taxes and property values go up and down.

He said to call them if you have any concerns about your bill.