HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. - For the first time in more than two decades, longtime Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden will not be on the ballot this fall, and there’s an extremely competitive race to replace him between Democrats Nancy Millan and April Griffin on August 18.

The tax collector’s office performs a number of vital administrative tasks, such as providing driver’s licenses and ID cards, registration tags, certified copies of birth certificates and hunting and fishing licenses, among others. It’s also where homeowners can pay their property taxes. The head job pays $171,000 annually.

Millan has worked at the tax collector’s office for over three decades, and currently serves as director of community relations. She’s received the lion’s share of endorsements from prominent Hillsborough Democrats (as well as from Belden, a Republican), and has raised more than twice as much money ($154,340 to $60,619) than Griffin as the race winds down to its final two weeks.

But Millan’s name has never been on a ballot in the county. That’s not the case with Griffin, who won three consecutive terms on the Hillsborough County School Board (2006-2018), and twice served as the board chair. 

For most of the campaign, Millan has been touting the relatively high marks that the tax collector’s office has enjoyed over the years. Her message is that she’ll advance the work that Belden’s office has done.

“We’ve set a gold standard in Hillsborough County and in government and set the foundation, but I also have a vision,” Millan tells Spectrum Bay News 9. “My vision is to build upon those successes and add more accessibility to our community.”

That sterling reputation has taken a bit of hit recently, however. A recent media report documented that since the coronavirus emerged, all visits to the Hillsborough tax collector’s offices require an appointment that can take as long as a month to fulfill.

“That office has really let us down for a number of years now, especially through the pandemic,” Griffin said on Monday.

Millan says there isn’t an office or organization that hasn’t had to adapt to providing services while working in a pandemic.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t a playbook on how to handle COVID and it’s something that we’ve been agile in working on and finding solutions to this situation every day,” she says.

Both candidates are talking about taking some of services that the tax collector’s performs out of their various buildings around the county and bringing them out to the community. Millan talks about implementing virtual offices, while Griffin says she’d utilize mobile units to reach the public. 

Millan is running on her experience. She notes that she essentially created her position as director of community relations from the ground up after Belden appointed her to the position in 2001. Since then, she says, it’s become a model for other tax collector offices around the state.

Griffin says that while she has never worked in the tax collector’s office, she has the leadership skills required to take on the job.

“We need a leader that’s ready to step into that position who’s ready to lead and that’s who I am,” she asserts.

There have also been controversial decisions Griffin made while on the board for twelve years that owns, none bigger than her vote to oust then Superintendent MaryEllen Elia back in early 2015.

That vote earned her the rebuke of several prominent Hillsborough County Democrats, many of whom are now backing Millan in the primary. Griffin has no regrets.

“It’s nothing new that the establishment hasn’t support me,” she says. “I’m someone who listens to the people, and when there are issues, if it goes against the status quo, so be it…I have a track record of standing up for people who have not had a voice.”

While there seems little that is ideological about running a tax collector’s office, it is officially a partisan race, and Griffin has questioned Millan’s Democratic Party bona fides.

A mailer sent out by a political committee headed by Griffin’s husband attacks Millan as a “Republican turned Democrat” and “Supported Pam Bondi, Donald Trump’s Impeachment Lawyer.”

Millan says that while she’s new to electoral politics, she is absolutely not a recent convert to the party. 

“I’ve been a Democrat for over 27 years,” she says, adding that “my record speaks for itself. I’ve been a professional and working behind the scenes. I’m not a career politician.”

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican T.K. Mathew in November.