Hernando County special magistrate hears scores of property valuation appeals; recommendations pending

COLLEEN MILLETT, special magistrate, convened telephone hearings for the Hernando County Value Adjustment Board on Nov. 7, 2025, to consider more than a dozen residential value petitions. The Property Appraiser’s Office (represented on the record by Brandon Jimenez and Doug Mack) presented sales-comparison packets and confirmed the county’s just and assessed values. Petitioner Stephanie Garcia submitted alternate opinions of value for many parcels. The magistrate said she will consider the evidence presented and issue recommendations to the Value Adjustment Board within the next two weeks.

Why this matters: determinations made by the special magistrate can change assessed and taxable values on individual parcels and therefore affect property tax bills for the owners of those parcels.

What the parties said and how hearings proceeded: for each petition the Property Appraiser’s Office read the parcel identification and the 2025 just/assessed/taxable values, described a field review date, and identified three comparables used in a sales-comparison analysis. The PA repeatedly cited the statutory standard for valuation, referencing Florida Statute 193.011, and submitted its packet into evidence as “PAOA.” Petitioner Stephanie Garcia presented smaller indicated values based on her own comparable-sales grids and asked the magistrate to lower the county values. The PA often questioned the petitioner’s adjustments—particularly land‑size and structure‑size adjustments—and pointed out instances where the appraiser’s grid and the petitioner’s grid produced inconsistent size or…