Tax Collector Fasano To Open Office In Office Building At The Grove

By Matt Wiley

UPDATE: The Pasco County Board of County Commissioners has unanimously approved the funds needed to lease space at the Grove at Wesley Chapel for a future, full-service Pasco tax collector’s office.

By next summer, Wesley Chapel residents may not have to travel tens of miles or into another county (see below) to take care of driver’s license issues and registration renewals, as Pasco’s newest tax collector is looking to open a brand new office in the growing area.

Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey) —who was appointed by Florida Governor Rick Scott to take over the position after the June 26 death of longtime Pasco tax collector Mike Olson — plans to open a full-service tax collector’s office in The Grove at Wesley Chapel shopping plaza sometime before July of 2014.

“There really is a great need (for a tax collector’s office),” Fasano says. “The population (in Wesley Chapel) has grown significantly. Mr. Olson previously had an office in Zephyrhills, but had to close it down and never reopened it.”

Fasano says that Olson had considered building a freestanding facility to house an office in the area, but noted that it would have cost between $3-$4 million to construct and would have been paid for with excess fees from the tax collectors’ four offices. Instead, he says, his office will lease one of the 8,400-sq.-ft. office buildings in the northeast section of the shopping plaza that will be paid for out of the tax collector’s annual budget. The lease terms are still being worked out. Fasano says that the excess fees that were set aside for constructing a new building will be used to renovate The Grove office space.

Fasano notes that the new location will service between 8,000-11,000 people in the area, employ 25 and even feature Saturday hours. He says that Pasco is the only county in the state with Saturday tax collector office hours. Services throughout the week will include driver’s licenses, vehicle and vessel registrations, hunting licenses and even driving tests. The large amount of parking space around the building also was a draw, Fasano says.

“We’ll be able to provide all of these services to Pasco residents in the hopes that they will no longer have to travel to Hillsborough for the same services, as they have in the past,” Fasano explains.

Before becoming tax collector for Pasco County, Fasano, 55, represented the 36th District in Florida’s House of Representatives, which consists of New Port Richey and the western-most region of Pasco. He originally was elected in 1994 and served until 2002, before serving in the Florida Senate until 2012. He was reelected to the House in 2012, but resigned to take over as Pasco tax collector after Olson’s death.

For more info, please visit PascoTaxes.com.