By Tiffany Larrabee
On June 3rd the Monroe County commissioners met to discuss the recent residential property tax assessments. The intensity of emotions swimming in the room was palpable.
Nathan Jackson, Senior Adult Pastor for New Providence Baptist Church of Smarr, opened the meeting with a prayer quoting Proverbs 18:17,
“The one who states his case first seems right until he comes and examines the others.” When asked for a comment on his choice for that verse Jackson said, “I believe people have two buckets. One filled with water and one filled with gasoline. As Christians I feel we should use our buckets of water more often.”
It was hard to tell how the proceedings were going to continue with the emotions running so high. Although, when asked who all were in attendance to speak about taxes nearly every hand shot into the air. This caused everyone, including the commissioners, to laugh, alleviating some of the tension in the room.
Eddie Rowland kicked things off by stating that he spoke with George Emami about the inequities of “high density, high value developments” being assessed more often and given larger increases more frequently than rural homes.
Some arguments were made that rural homes are more difficult to assess due to the lower volume of sales in the area, and the differences in square footage.
One woman spoke out saying “My house is 45 years old. What 45 year old house was it compared to?”
To which Bobbi Gerhardt, Chief Appraiser for Monroe County, replied “That is information that would be used in an appeal.”
Rowland said he spoke with Gerhardt, about how his office submits the assessments to the state so that they can audit them and make sure the provable values are at 90%. Provable values are found by gathering comps of 3 to 5 surrounding houses sold within so many miles of the one being appraised with similar square footage.
Rowland stated that the requirements that are “requested” by the state must be kept within that 90% range, because unfortunately, if they aren’t, the state would allow the utility companies to receive a reduced tax rate which would severely affect the county’s budget.
The abruptness of this year’s increases seemed to be the biggest issue some people were facing.
One person commented that it was the “lack of warning,” that made them so upset. Leaving them to ask, why were some increases as high as 100% in such a short time?
In the spirit of full transparency Rowland shared that his own home was previously valued at 250k and was reassessed at 350k this year. His initial shock waned once he found that if he was to sell his house, it would be for far more than the reassessed value. This helped him decide not to appeal his own assessment. He urged the citizens to consider the same when submitting appeals.
One person later said, “Ya’ll are coming with the idea that everybody is wanting to sell. Most people I’ve spoken to don’t want to sell.”
Clearly letting the commissioners know many Monroe County natives have no intentions of selling their homes.
Several options were considered when trying to navigate a resolution to the tax issue. When Rowland said they could try lowering millage, a number representing the tax levied on property for every $1000 of its assessed value, he explained why it wouldn’t be the best option.
If millage was lowered it could cut the residential taxes by 50% yes, but that would also be applied to the industrial and commercial properties that did not see an increase in their assessed value this year. That would give them a considerable tax cut compared to last year.
One thing that came to light during these proceedings was that while residential assessments have been done more frequently in some areas, all of residential Monroe County hasn’t been done in 17 years and a full industrial and commercial reassessment hasn’t been done since 2015.
Rowland reassured everyone that if they did opt into HB581 a requirement of it is that all assessments must be done every 3 years.
Rowland said that opting into HB581 would also potentially help because taxes would be capped and only be allowed to go up by 2 or 3%. Although that wouldn’t be in effect until the following year.
In order to find a more immediate solution he proposed they freeze the taxes now at the 2024 valuations.
Al Turner later commented that he was “satisfied with this solution.”
When Rowland was asked Thursday morning for a comment he said “We took an action that was necessary.” He then talked about how he intended to testify on Monroe County’s behalf to state representatives when trying to find more resolutions to these tax issues.
City Manager, Jim Hedges, (who later announced his impending retirement) asked that the commissioners wait until the next meeting on June 17th at 9 a.m. to take a vote on freezing the taxes, so that they could communicate with the board of tax assessors and make sure the process was done properly.
Lamarcus Davis commented a few days after the meeting saying, “We have reached out to the board of assessors since and have already proposed the tax freeze.”
Russ Edge, a concerned citizen, asked that the public be notified when the tax assessor’s board meets to which John Ambrose replied “Those meetings are public. What would you say to them?”
Edge spoke with confidence saying “It depends on what the subject is. I don’t know what I would say but I’m certain that I would add value.”
When asked for a comment on how the proceedings went John Ambrose said “People think we did this, but it was thrown at us.”
That was a central theme for the commissioners. They wanted the people to understand that this was happening to them as well.
On multiple occasions, during the meeting and after, when asked for a comment, Alan Gibbs stated “I just want the people to know that we care. That this affects us too. We are doing everything we can to find a solution.”
A few citizens still went on to convey how they live on fixed incomes and had no way to pay their doubled and tripled tax assessments. Some were worried they were being priced out of the area.
One woman voiced concern for her grandchildren, expressing our need for more affordable housing. Begging the question, is there such a thing as an affordable house in Monroe County? If there is, what kind of income do you need in order to live here and pay the taxes?
