People can now combine trips and visit the property appraiser and tax collector all in one Largo location.
The Largo branch of the property appraiser’s office moved across the street to dedicated space within the tax collector’s office at 13025 Starkey Road on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Tom Desneux, director of the Largo property appraiser’s office, said the move would make it easier for residents who can now apply for homestead exemptions, senior exemptions and get other services in the same location they use to renew an auto tag or driver’s license at the tax collector’s office.
The initial move included all customer service functions, including tangible personal property for business; however, Desneux said in the near future the remaining staff at the property appraiser’s office would be moving in with the Supervisor of Elections Service Center at 13001 Starkey Road.
The relocations will save the county about $70,000 a year on rented space, Desneux said. He said Pinellas County was actively looking for ways to cut costs and moving the property appraiser in with the tax collector and supervisor of elections was one example of methods being used to reduce costs.
Desneux said the moves made sense since the needs of the different departments had changed. For example, the elections office no longer has the need to store as many paper records now that most records storage is done electronically. So the space that used to be used for storage was reallocated to elections office space to make room for the non-customer service operations of the property appraiser in another part of the building. Also, the number of employees at the Largo property appraiser’s office has dropped by half - 22 to 11.
The locations may be different, but everything else stayed the same, Desneux said. Items sent by U.S. mail still go to P.O. Box 1957 in Clearwater, and the phone number 464-8484 is the same.
Property Appraiser Pam Dubov thanked Tax Collector Diane Nelson and Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark for their cooperation with the relocations.
“Budget cuts have caused all of us to become more creative as we have fewer dollars to spend. This partnership enables all three constitutional offices a way to maintain a high level of service while staying within our budget limitations,” Dubov said.
Revision: Clearifed Pinellas County uses paper ballots.
