Property Tax Relief Program May Increase In Putnam County

A $50 increase could be coming to Putnam County’s Property Tax Relief Program.

County Commissioner Cindy Adams said the program currently offers up to $100 a year to eligible property owners.

“We were proposing an extra $50. We came to that amount for a couple of reasons,” Adams said. “If a person has a $100,000 home, the tax increase that was just passed would result in an extra $49 a year, so that would cover it. The other reason was that we can do an extra $50 tax relief without probably having to dip into fund balance because we already have the money available in our budget as passed.”

Adams said the tax relief program helps elderly, disabled, or low-income property owners affected by the 19.6-cent property tax increase approved by the county commission earlier this year. She said the income limit to qualify for the program will be $29,860.

“We assume it’s going to run around $45,000 to $50,000 a year for all the families that will qualify,” Adams said. “We have approximately 1,100 (people) that are getting tax relief right now.”

The Putnam County Fiscal Review Committee voted Monday to recommend the $50 increase for the program. The full county commission will consider the increase during the Monday, October 21 meeting.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to have a tax increase. I felt like we had to in order to get those SRO’s in the schools,” County Commissioner Jimmy Neal said. “But this (tax relief program) is a very good thing for the people who need it.”

Putnam County began offering the tax relief program in 2008.