News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The White County Budget Committee discussing the potential impact of the reappraisal process coming next year.
Property Assessor Junior Jones said they are expecting to see property throughout the county appraise for up to forty-five percent more than it did in 2020. Jones said the state requires to reappraisal process to have a neutral impact on the county’s revenue.
“So how can it be a revenue neutral process when you go up forty-five percent average across the board? Tax rate has to drop,” Jones said. “New certified rate will be forty-five percent less. Then you’ll have the ratio coming off, so you’ll have the revenue from that.”
County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said this “revenue neutral” method hurts the county’s growth. He said it affects people in different ways across the county.
“Probably it’s not revenue neutral for anybody,” Robinson said. “Half the people’s taxes will go up and half of the people’s will go down. But the money coming into the county is theoretically neutral.”
Robinson said the reappraisal process will take place all throughout 2025.
“When you make everything revenue neutral, it’s the same amount of money you was collecting five years ago. It’s – that doesn’t keep with inflation and such and so forth. I’ve had my conversations with the comptroller’s office. It is not – mathematically, it’s revenue neutral, but in real – to be realistic, it’s not revenue neutral. You lose any growth that you had during that year. That’s not calculated in. So it’s not revenue neutral, but they say it is.”
Robinson said this year’s property tax rate will stay at its current rate, which is $2.05 per $100 of assessed value.
The committee also looked at four different plans determining how much funding to provide to the sheriff’s department and EMS. Denny Wayne Robinson said the committee approved a plan to fund new three vehicles for the sheriff’s department and add a third EMS truck to help with call-ins during the night shift.
