I just love the way the local news reporters are trying to make us feel better about a property tax hike in Rutherford County. The tax rate is going up by 9 cents, but that isn’t as bad, they say, as the original plan which would have us paying 26 cents more. Oh, I feel so much better. What the news reports have failed to mention is the fact that we received new property tax assessments last month. The appraised value of my house went up over $50,000 since the previous assessment (which couldn’t have been more than four years ago). This made the assessed value go up by over $11,000. When I do the math, I find that my effective tax increase will be nearly 60 cents. Who do they think they’re fooling?
I suppose I should be comforted by the fact that they think my house is worth so much, but I’ll bet that if the county suddenly wanted my land for something, they wouldn’t want to pay me what they say is the appraised value.
4 comments:
Have you considered challenging the appraisal? I did that this year for my home after the appraisal went up significantly over the last couple of years, and the county reduced the assessed value (although not as much as I'd have liked). I'm not sure what the procedure is in Tennessee, but it was a fairly simple process in Texas.
You may be an English prof--but you are really good at that political math, too!
This is almost enough to make me become a libertarian.
Mugsy, I was going to let it go until they decided to raise the tax, but now I'm going to call the number that's listed on the appraisal notice and see if they can help me. It should be illegal to reassess property values and raise the tax in the same year.
JB, I couldn't figure out a simple formula for calculating the figures. I spent about 30 minutes on the math. If they had done real life problems like this back in math class, then I probably would have paid more attention and learned more.
You should try Davidson County. Go Titans and take the tax increases with you!
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