After the candidates were done tonight I had the chance to speak with Gary Nikolits, who is running for reelection as Property Appraiser.
I had previously met and wrote about Robert Weinroth, who is challenging Nikolits.
Tonight I asked Nikolits about Weinroth’s arguments. He answered well.
On the homestead fraud issue, Nikolits says that his office does a better job of preventing such fraud in the first place, and that’s why the county doesn’t have big numbers in this area. He explained in detail what his office does differently, essentially a double check on the exemption every year where other counties only do a single check.
Also on the issue of staffing he admitted his office has more staff but he claims his office gets more done. Nikolits said that Broward is behind schedule on some areas like appeals. By having more staff they can better appraise property and he said this has brought in more money than the cost of his staff.
I asked Weinroth about Nikolits’ answers and it’s difficult to say who is right. Comments welcome of course.
