Selby Gardens property tax issue headed to court

Jennifer Rominiecki and Bill Furst haven’t publicly agreed on much since 2019, but they share the same outlook on at least one thing: They’re not happy with the outcome of an April 19 Value Adjustment Board meeting that failed to bring closure to a long-standing dispute over the tax-exempt status of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ bayfront property.

Rominiecki, Selby’s president and CEO, and Furst, the Sarasota County property appraiser, have spent more than a year debating whether some or all of Selby’s land should be subject to property taxes. Rominiecki claimed the property appraiser was overturning years of precedence and targeting standard operations for a nonprofit. Furst asserted that some activity at Selby Gardens in partnership with a for-profit operator was not entitled to an exemption and that Selby’s intransigence was holding up a straightforward case.

After trading correspondence and making their cases in front of an arbiter, both parties believed that they had achieved some resolution in March, when a special magistrate determined event-rental activity made Selby liable for a portion of its property tax liability.

In an email to Selby members, Rominiecki called the recommendation an “overwhelming victory,” highlighting that it would reduce the ad valorem tax bill from nearly $985,000 if the exemption were denied to just more than $106,000. Furst noted that Selby’s recommended tax liability was actually slightly higher than his office said it should have been in 2019.

Both parties hoped the April 19 meeting would conclude with an affirmation of the magistrate’s recommendation. The Value Adjustment Board is a state-sanctioned body responsible for hearing appeals related to property value and taxation disputes. However, later that day, Rominiecki sent another email to members stating that Selby was headed to court to preserve its property tax exemption.

In the email, Rominiecki said the Value Adjustment Board could not affirm the magistrate’s recommendation because of a technicality. In a statement emailed to the Sarasota Observer, Rominiecki said an issue arose because the property appraiser’s team raised an alternative interpretation of a state statute two days before the Value Adjustment Board hearing.

Rominiecki said Selby had not paid any of its tax bill prior to reaching a resolution regarding an outstanding dispute, but the property appraiser’s team claimed Selby was required to pay $13,073.99 in non-ad valorem tax to have its petition heard in front of the Value Adjustment Board.

Rominiecki said in an interview that Selby paid the non-ad valorem tax as soon as it became aware of a potential issue, but the Value Adjustment Board’s attorney informed the board that it could not consider Selby’s petition because the organization failed to meet an April 1 deadline. Although Rominiecki said she was confident the issue would be resolved in circuit court, she attributed the lack of resolution to insufficient guidance from Furst’s office.

“The courtesy of a communication from the property appraiser’s office would have saved a lot of taxpayer money spent on this entire effort,” Rominiecki said. “We had no intention of not fulfilling any obligation.”

In an email, Furst acknowledged his office never informed Selby Gardens that it still needed to pay its non-ad valorem taxes because his office does not remind property owners of their need to pay taxes. The property appraiser does not levy or collect taxes, he said.

Furst said his office never raised an alternative interpretation of state statutes to Selby Gardens. He said the Value Adjustment Board’s clerk reviews the tax status of petitioners prior to the board’s final meeting, and his office’s legal counsel contacted the board’s attorney to find out if that review had taken place. Furst said the Value Adjustment Board attorney is the one that contacted Selby about the issues regarding nonpayment.

“I reiterate, it has never been, nor is it now, the responsibility of the property appraiser to remind a property owner or taxpayer to pay their tax bill,” Furst said in the email.

In the March email, Rominiecki highlighted proposed legislation in the Florida House and Senate designed to clarify regulations regarding tax-exempt status. Furst said that his office has worked with the legislators who introduced those bills — including Sarasota-area Sen. Joe Gruters — to help craft the language in the proposal.

Although Selby Gardens and the property appraiser’s office continue to be at odds, both sides expressed an eagerness to finally end the clash over the tax exemption question.

“It’s just a shame that this couldn’t be a more productive dialog,” Rominiecki said.