No. 24 on the list of Central Florida’s Most Powerful Politicians: Rick Singh

Rick Singh
Rick Singh has been a target for criticism, but he has succeeded on behalf of taxpayers

Nothing quiets critics quite like success.

Few Central Florida politicians have had more powerful critics — enemies in some cases — than Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh.

Few have been able to point out more successes in protecting tax dollars, as well.

Consequently, Singh, first elected in 2012 and then re-elected by a landslide in 2016, comes in as the 24th most powerful elected official in Florida Politics debut of its survey of Central Florida’s Most Powerful Politicians. He also is the only non-sheriff constitutional officer from any Central Florida county to make the list.

When he was first elected, Singh became the county’s first-ever state-certified appraiser to become county property appraiser. Vowing to bring more professional principals and technologies to the office and to aggressively pursue appraisals against some of the giant property holders in the county, Singh has celebrated a number of milestones, including his announcement in April that his reforms alone had added $1 billion to the tax roles and more than $50 million in new tax revenue.

Singh might have been someone groomed as a rising star in Democratic politics were he not so embattled with some of the most prominent corporate and political players in Central Florida. Most notably, the theme parks and International Drive interests have been furious and deeply objecting to his office’s assessments of their property values and the resulting tax increases they’ve had to face.

Singh would argue that not coincidentally, he also has been embattled with scandalous allegations, first that he had changed his name to hide a past, then that his Property Appraiser’s Office and his political campaign were bleeding with hostility, sexual harassment, and corruption.

He vigorously denied and fought against all the allegations. He has done the same against the litigation and official adjustments claims filed by the big property owners. A 99.5 percent victory rate at the Orange County Value Adjustment Board and a steady albeit expensive progression of successes in court battles have largely solidified him.

So has a landmark court victory that had nothing to do with his job as property appraiser. This spring, the Florida Supreme Court sided with Singh and Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph in their five-year legal battle to keep their offices partisan. Consequently, Singh’s future in his office now appears mostly dependent on his ability to defeat Republicans in a county in which Republican voters make up only about a quarter of the total electorate.

While he has vigorously defended his partisan standing in office, Singh also has not been shy about crossing party lines, showing up in silent support for some Republicans, including former Gov. Rick Scott, generally at events that should be non-partisan.

Follow the list here, on Facebook and Twitter at #Top25inCF.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].



#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories