Hernando County special magistrate reviews multiple property-tax appeals; recommends lower value in one case

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Special Magistrate Robert Hicks held continuation hearings on multiple property-value appeals Jan. 21, 2025, and said he will send recommended findings to the Hernando County Value Adjustment Board (VAB) in the coming weeks.

Hicks heard evidence from the Hernando County Property Appraiser’s Office and from petitioners in separate cases involving single-family and manufactured homes across the county. The most significant development came in a Brooksville appeal in which the magistrate recommended a lower “just value” than the appraiser’s assessment.

In the first matter, concerning a newly built 2023 single-family home in Southern Hills Plantation at 194 Forest Garden Court, the Property Appraiser’s Office had listed the 2024 just and assessed value at $472,995 and a taxable value of $422,995. The appraiser presented three comparable sales that reconciled to an indicated market value of $523,324 (about $183 per adjusted square foot). The appraiser’s packet showed a weighted mean sales-to-assessment ratio of roughly 83% and a square-foot median of about $184.

Petitioner John McDonald disputed the appraisal, submitted his own calculation (an unadjusted average of the three comps totaling about $433,682) and pressed the magistrate to apply the 8th statutory criterion — a…