Statement on Fannin County Property Tax from 2002 Campaign

Last year during the “public hearings” on the County portion of your property tax (the school board also levies property tax) the overall tax digest increased by just over 16%. This was initially presented as growth due to inflation, but the CPI (US government official figures) were under 4% and the population increase was under 3%. By keeping the millage rate the same, the county in effect raised property tax collections in Fannin county by 16% which was 10% over the true inflation.

Some of this was due to new construction but the remainder was due to “re-assessments”. Creeping development via “re-assessments” will affect YOUR property tax bill in the future.

While visiting with Fannin County residents over the past few months, we have encountered the following two examples:

1)      A family has owned a home for approximately 40 years with fairly stable property tax assessments. But these have just tripled which will result in tripling of the property tax if the millage and homestead exemption remain the same. Several expensive vacation houses have been built in the area and these are contributing to the increased assessment. This is wrong, the family bought a home that they could afford, have lived in it for close to 40 years without any major changes and are now being told they have to pay more because of their new neighbors who are not even full time residents.

2)      A man has a mobile home and 16 acres, mostly the side of a mountain. He has owned and lived in the home for about 15 years with stable property taxes. His assessment has recently more than doubled. Once again this is due to surrounding development, for which he receives no benefit, other than higher taxes.

Both of these examples show the trend referenced in our Campaign Announcement and if continued through the 20 year term of debt and beyond will have a major impact on many in Fannin County. It is our understanding that 20% of the county is “re-assessed” every year, so unless something is done you can expect a jump in your property taxes every five years. You only have to look a couple of county lines south of us to see many displaced home owners from excessive property taxes.

Proposed Solution

We have proposed:

1)      Homestead exemption. The indexing of homestead exemption. This means that you establish a base year, say 2002. Any increase in your property tax assessment, other than new structures or ownership, is added to your homestead exemption. This prevents creeping development from increasing the taxable part of your assessment. This has already been proposed by Post 1 Commissioner, Randy Collins.

2)      Rollback of Millage Rate. New development and re-assessments raises the total tax digest in the county. This is the sum of all property tax assessments. The total property taxes should not increase more than the rate of inflation and population growth without approval from the people. It is the people’s money and the county government should ask for any additional increase, detailing what it will be used for or what service will have to be cut if not approved and then let the people vote. This was proposed by Mike Crane during the 2001 property tax public hearings last fall.

These two steps will not only involve the citizens in critical decisions of their county government, but will result in the county being more equitable and accountable for the funds that it does obtain. It will also protect many in Fannin County who do not have financial means to pay ever increasing property taxes and preserve their ability to live here.

It will mean that new people moving here and people who own vacation homes, but do not live here will pay a larger share.

Summary

The two proposals would still allow the county property tax revenue to grow at between 3-5% a year, but the property tax for full time residents would remain the same or show a slight decrease. Any growth of the county tax revenue over 3-5% would be by a majority vote of the voters of Fannin County.

Note: Part of this Fannin County property tax reform plan will be on the ballot in November for citizen approval. My pledge if given the opportunity to serve as your State Senator is to work diligently to have full property tax reform placed on a ballot for citizens approval in every county of the 51st District. Over the next couple weeks will propose the details for each county for your consideration.

In Fannin County only the county portion of property tax will be indexed if approved in November. This will provide property tax reform for 30% of your tax bill instead of the 100% that we campaigned for. My pledge for Fannin County is that if elected I will give you the opportunity to extend your current 30% solution to 100%.