Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Commission Urges State To Continue Funding For Tax Relief Program
Lawrence County leaders have joined with county governments across Tennessee, urging state law makers to continue to fully fund a tax relief program from which many local residents benefit.
The action is in regards to a program that has been in place since 1973 that provides tax relief for the elderly and disabled.
The resolution approved by the Lawrence County Board of Commissioners during a meeting Tuesday urges state lawmakers to, “Seek permanent sources of funding to fully fund the property tax relief program for the disabled and elderly property owners of our state.”
Commissioner Chris Jackson explained, “(The program) may be cut by the state and we would either have to fund it at the local level or those folks would have to absorb that tax increase.”
County Trustee Kiley Weathers addressed the board to more fully explain the matter. He stated that approximately $271,000 in state tax relief funds are currently allocated to Lawrence County. Those funds are used to provide tax relief to approximately 1,400 local residents.
Weathers said that the proposal is to cut funding for the tax relief program by 20%. “Two hundred seventy-one thousand dollars comes to our citizens,” Weathers pointed out, “If you do the math, they’re going to cut that by about $51,000.”
Weathers said, “I don’t know if they’re trying to place the expenditure on the local governments, because some of them are already providing help within their counties. But I do know that there’s going to be a cut there and it doesn’t just affect the ones that draw it, it affects everybody.
The reason I’m saying this is that these folks are our friends, they’re our neighbors, they’re our parents, grandparents.”
Weathers said that in his office, “We sit on the front lines and we do the applications for them day in and day out from October through April 7th. To see what some of these folks live within each month – it’ll pull at your heart.”
Weathers told commissioners that state leaders are considering lowering the qualifying income amount as a cost cutting method. “Its been appropriated for $28 million across the state and to reach that the state would have to take the income amount that would qualify you for tax relief from $27,800 down to $17,500. So right off the bat you take all those folks off.”
“Right now,” Weathers said, “We’re on a voucher system. If your taxes are under $171 in Lawrence County you come in and as long as you live on the property and meet the income requirements you’ve got a voucher up front.
If you take that voucher away you’re going to have folks that come into trustee’s offices across the state that can’t come up with that money.
One hundred and seventy-one dollars might not sound like a lot, but a couple of times a year it may be a power bill – it has to go a long way.” He said, “The fear from the Trustee’s Association is that the ones that are going to suffer the most are the ones that are going to need it the most.”
Commissioners present voted unanimously to approve the resolution. The information will now be passed along to the Tennessee Senate and General Assembly.
