Police Union Blasts County Property Appraiser

Miami-Dade police union officials on Thursday said $105 million in uncollected property taxes could help plug a $400 million county budget hole instead of hitting officers up for more concessions.

 

Dozens of Miami-Dade officers stood behind their union president, John Rivera, as he blamed the county’s property appraiser for not going after people who are not paying all of their property taxes.

 

“The property appraiser does not see this as a priority all these 3,500 complaints that have been sitting there, some of them, for six months to a year,” said James DiBernardo, a retired major with Miami-Dade Police, who backed Rivera. DiBernardo used to be the head of the Economic Crimes Bureau at the police department.

 

Property tax evasion is not uncommon in South Florida. Some people take advantage of the $50,000 Homestead Exemption even though they aren’t living full-time at that particular property.

 

Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia defended himself and said the union’s claim that he is not doing his job was out of line.

 

“I'm an elected official, and I'm going to respect every property owner and if anybody is taking advantage of the Homestead (Exemption), we're going to go after them,” Garcia said.

 

In February, two Miami-Dade police detectives started working with the appraiser’s office in contacting homeowners and urging them to pay their taxes.

 

But union officials said Garcia told them to back off, slow down and not be so aggressive in contacting the homeowners.

 

“Nobody in the property appraiser’s office had this as a priority,” said DiBernardo.

 

Garcia said that is absolutely not true.

 

“I'm shocked really, because we never told them to slow down or do anything like that. We've been proceeding after everybody, who is in the same situation,” Garcia said.

 

Officials at County Hall need to find ways to trim the budget, and as part of the cuts, they had proposed to get some $70 million from the police union.