Jacksonville City Council member Rahman Johnson served as the master of ceremonies of the cty of Jacksonville's celebration of Florida Emancipation Day on May 20, 2025. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 6, 2025 at 4:16 pm
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Duval County residents who decide to appeal their property value assessments this year will pay a higher fee.
Jacksonville’s Value Adjustment Board moved Wednesday to increase the application fee in the appeal process to $50 from $15. The vote by the city board comes after the Florida Legislature gave the county adjustment board its blessing by increasing a cap on the fee.
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Duval County homeowners will see their latest property valuation — which the cities and counties use to calculate property tax bills — when they receive their Truth in Millage notice later this month.
The notice, known as a TRIM notice, also will show the new $50 appeal fee. There will also be a $5 fee for each additional parcel included in the appeal. State law requires Florida counties to offer and maintain an appeal process.
Rahman Johnson, a Jacksonville City Council member and acting board chair for Wednesday’s meeting, told Jacksonville Today that the fee had not been raised since the 1980s and the revenue was not covering the costs of the appeal process.
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He says officials don’t see the increase to $50 as an “untenable” fee or one that creates a barrier for homeowners. According to Johnson, some attorneys consulted about the fee suggested it be as high as $200 to $300.
“There’s nothing else that I know that has maintained any fee or bill of any type that we pay the same thing from from the 1980s to now,” he said.
The board’s budget last year was around $360,000, and the fee generated only $75,000 in revenue, according to statistics provided by Johnson and city staff. That money pays for professional services, special magistrates, legal support and administrative costs.
The deficit is covered by about $285,000 from the city’s general fund.
“And that could take away from programs and services, or what have you, that we need in the city,” Johnson said.
Even with an increase, he says, the $50 fee will not be enough to completely cover the cost of an appeal. Johnson says it will create about $200,000 in revenue, filling some but not all of the gap.
The adjustment board handles about 5,000 appeals per year, according to the city stats. The property owner and the Duval County Property Appraiser’s Office resolve some of them before they get to the adjustment board’s appeal process.
But about 70% of those appeals come from corporate tax representatives or consultants who file appeals on behalf of the property owners, Johnson says. Value Adjustment Board members say those companies were taking advantage of the “nominal” $15 fee and filing the appeals en masse, Johnson said.
“The remaining 30% are individuals seeking fairness in their property assessments,” Johnson said in an email Wednesday to Jacksonville Today. “This is a right I strongly support and will continue to champion. We really have to talk about who’s really utilizing the system and who’s ultimately footing the bill.”
When a property valuation is appealed, the case goes before a judge magistrate who handles the property owner’s dispute.
“People in many cases were not even showing up for the hearing, but we were still responsible for the special magistrate, and going in and ensuring that all the pieces of the law were followed which we had done for years and years,” Johnson said. “And the fee just wasn’t there to support that.”
The adjustment board has five members including two council members, Johnson and chair Will Lahnen, Duval County School Board member Charlotte Joyce and citizen members Shirley Dasher and Domonic Cummings.
Johnson, a Democrat, said he worked with state Rep. Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, to include the fee change as part of House Bill 7031 on taxation during the session.
The Legislature’s bill also allows people from counties with a population of more than 75,000 to appear for their appeal by video conference, telephone or other electronic means. Counties smaller than that can opt out of that option.
