2014 Winter Newsletter

COUNTY SPOTLIGHT: MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

Miami-Dade County is located in a unique, subtropical region of the country and is known worldwide for its beautiful beaches, cultural diversity and tourism. It is the largest county in Florida in terms of land area and population, with more than 2.5 million people, nearly 1,000,000 properties and 35 incorporated cities. Half of its residents reside in the unincorporated area. Dade County was founded on January 18, 1836. The County was named after Ma- jor Francis L. Dade, a soldier killed in 1835 during the Second Seminole War. With the arrival of Henry Flagler‟s East Coast Railroad in 1896 and construction

Carlos Lopez-Cantera

of the Royal Palm Hotel, South Florida became more accessible and progress soon followed. During the 1920‟s, as new subdivisions and tourist resorts were built, the real estate boom changed the area. By then, the community had changed so much that visitors remarked it had changed like “magic”. The moniker stuck and Miami came to be known as the “Magic City”. As a result of international attention, on November 13, 1997 voters added “Miami” to the County‟s name, officially making it Miami-Dade County. Over the years, Miami-Dade County evolved into a modern metropolitan community and so did its government. The County‟s electorate adopted the Home Rule Charter on May 21, 1957. The new char- ter formed a unique metropolitan form of government. In 2008, the Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter was amended to transfer the duties of the County‟s property appraiser from a person ap- pointed and supervised by the mayor to a person elected by the voters. On August 14, 2012, Carlos Lo- pez-Cantera became the second property appraiser to be elected by the citizens of Miami-Dade. Since taking office, Property Appraiser Lopez-Cantera has published property values earlier than ever before in the County‟s history, empowered staff to complete on-the-spot assessment reviews, spearheaded a new initiative to fight homestead exemption fraud and has made prompt and efficient customer ser- vice the top priority of the office.

2013 Preliminary Tax Roll At-A Glance

Real Property Parcels

894,200

Tangible Accounts

111,992

Just (Market) Value

$255,778,130,980

Taxable Value

$185,118,599,304

Carlos Lopez-Cantera was elected by the voters of Miami-Dade County | Number of Employ- ees: 345| Online: www.miamidade.gov/pa facebook.com/MiamiDadePA twitter.com/ MiamiDadePA

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Winter 2014 Newsletter of the FCIAAO