LAKE COUNTY, FLORIDA
Carey Baker is a Lake County native having been born in Eustis, Florida. He is a graduate of Tavares High School and attended Lake-Sumter State College.
At the age of 18, Carey joined the family business; The A.W. Peterson Gun Shop. The A.W. Peterson Gun Shop in Mount Dora is the oldest gun shop in the United States having been established in 1886. Carey’s father, Leighton Baker, moved the gun shop from Denver, Colorado to Mount Dora in 1953.
Carey joined the Army National Guard while still in high school. He retired from the guard in 2013 having served over 31 years and having attained the rank of First Sergeant. In 2003, while a Member of the Florida House of Representatives, Baker was deployed to combat Infantry missions in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was the first state or federal elected official to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom while holding office. He is a graduate of numerous military courses/schools including the U.S. Army Jungle Operation School and the U.S. Army Pathfinder School.
Carey successfully ran for the Florida House of Representatives in 2000 and was reelected to the House in 2002. In 2004, he won a special election for the 20th district seat in the Florida Senate and was subsequently reelected. While serving in the Florida Senate he served as Chairman of both the Senate Transportation Committee and the Senate General Government Appropriation Committee. During his legislative tenure, Carey worked with elected Property Appraiser’s across the state on several property appraiser measures and was instrumental in their passage.
In 2012, Carey was elected to the position of Property Appraiser for Lake County, Florida. Since being elected, he has strived to increase services his office provides to the property owners of Lake County and to all the consumers of property data from his agency’s website. In 2015, his agency was selected from assessment agencies worldwide and awarded the prestigious Public Information Program Award from the International Association of Assessing Officers. The award was presented to Baker’s office for their extremely successful and easy-to-use Homestead eFile program and for their success in presenting complicated exemption information in a clear, transparent, and easily understood manner to the user. Since receiving this recognition, Carey’s office has assisted several other Florida counties in the development of their own homestead eFile program. Carey is also extremely active with the Florida Association of Property Appraisers (FAPA); serving in several leadership roles.
Carey resides with his wife Lori and their three children in Eustis, Florida.
Contact Information
Lake County Property Appraiser's office
320 W. Main Street, Suite A
Tavares, FL 32778
Office: (352) 253-2150
Fax: (352) 253-2155
Email: ehavill@lcpafl.org
Email: cbaker@lcpafl.org
Website: http://www.lapcfl.org
Additional Information
Chief Deputy
Michael W. Prestridge, CCF, CFE
(352) 253-2153