Duval County VAB raises filing fee to $50, reappoints counsel and names magistrates at organizational meeting

The Duval County Value Adjustment Board on May 27, 2025, voted to raise its petition filing fee to $50 for the initial parcel (with $5 for each additional parcel), reappointed Aaron Thalwitzer as board legal counsel with a recommended hourly rate and a not-to-exceed annual cap, approved a slate of special magistrates and set magistrate pay, adopted updated local administrative procedures that implement recent state law changes, and approved the board’s hearing and monthly meeting schedules.

"Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty," Acting Chair Council Member Rahman Johnson began, quoting John Adams as he opened the board’s organizational meeting at 11:37 a.m. in the Jacksonville City Council Chamber.

The board said the fee update responds to a pattern of mass filings and to statutory changes that gave the board authority to set a higher fee. Johnson said the previous $15 application charge had been in place since the 1980s and that the increase — now set at $50 for the first parcel and $5 for each additional parcel — is intended to discourage what he described as low-merit, mass appeals and to make the VAB more…