The West Boca Community Council met tonight.
The first thing mentioned were concerns about a proposed casino expansion. The State Senate’s Gaming Committee is having a workshop on 10/23 from 4-7 pm at 1000 Coconut Creek Blvd (Broward College – Omni Auditorium). Ms. Scarborough expressed concerns about traffic and pawn shops.
Capt. Eisenberg talked about a couple of scams going on, as he mentioned at the Chamber meeting this morning. See our earlier post. He was asked about a recent home invasion, but he didn’t know enough about the incident to comment other than that no one was hurt.
Capt. Eisenberg also warned us of stepped up traffic enforcement on Glades at the moment and soon on Palmetto.
Concert coming up on the 20th in the park – the Lumineers. So apparently traffic from a government sponsored concert is good but casino traffic is bad.
Commissioner Berger spoke briefly, mentioning an exhibit at the Morikami.
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The featured speaker was Dorothy Jacks from the county property appraiser, on fraud in the digital era, specifically homestead fraud.
Issues come up such as having two homesteads or children retaining homestead exemptions on property owned by deceased parents.
She said they will collect close to $2 million in property taxes from the frauds that they catch.
She talked about various digital sources they use to find homestead fraud. These enable them to spot properties being rented and out of state deaths. They also work with other counties and other states.
Back taxes can go back as far as ten years. Of those notified, 70% send a check within 30 days.
If the owner fails to pay the penalty is 50% plus 15% interest per year.
The average amount is around $5,000. But sometimes they get big – one recent one was $230K.
“One person getting an improper exemption is another person’s tax increase.”
