27.5 Cent Property Tax Increase On Table For Putnam Budget (Cookeville: sale, house)

[Jumeby]

This proposed property tax increase in this bad and worsening economy is a slap in the face to the good people of Putnam county. People are already struggling to pay their property tax due to the artificially inflated property values and now our own local government wants to throw gasoline on the fire.

If passed, this property tax increase would result in almost $70 per $100K increase or $688 per $100K.

What I don't understand is why they need to increase property taxes. With all the new people moving to Putnam they already add to taxes and fees collected by the county.

27.5 Cent Property Tax Increase On Table For Putnam Budget

[tragenvol]

I think the increase would be $275 per $100K.

[Jumeby]

I was going by this: Calculating Property Tax

From the TN.gov page:
To calculate your property tax, multiply the appraised value by the assessment ratio for the property's classification. Then, multiply the product by the tax rate.

In this case $100,000 x 25% or .25 = $25,000

Then $25,000 x 2.747% or .02747 = $686.75 (Proposed tax increase)

For 2022 it was $25,000 x 2.472 or .02472 = $618

Difference is $68.75

But home values have skyrocket over the past several years. In some cases over 65%.

[tragenvol]

You're exactly right. But, I found this previous statement confusing: "If passed, this property tax increase would result in almost $70 per $100K increase or $688 per $100K." I see what you are saying now, but it almost read to me that it would be a $688 increase.

The easy calculation for the increase is per $100; so, for every $100 you add $.275 (increase only). $100,000/100 = 1000*.275 = $275. The original proposal was $.49 per $100 or $490 per $100K.

Home values have skyrocketed; they won't ever go back to where the were relative to their meteoric increases of late....homes were we severely undervalued here compared to the rest of the nation.

Assessment values will be something to keep an eye on (I think they are reappraised every six years or so by the state); as market value is always well above assessment value.

[JRR]

I don't like tax increases any more than anyone else as I have to pay Algood city tax on top of the Putnam County tax. But a growing area creates growing demand for services and I'm not sure that I see a bad and worsening economy here. And it appears that Putnam County has been losing experienced people due to the lower pay scale. Having a constant revolving door of employees being hired and then leaving for better opportunities doesn't really benefit anyone. This probably should have been addressed previously, but it is a tough step to take.

Hopefully this increase will get us to where we need to be for a while but it is going to be a bitter pill to swallow for now.

[Jumeby]

Originally Posted by tragenvol

You're exactly right. But, I found this previous statement confusing: "If passed, this property tax increase would result in almost $70 per $100K increase or $688 per $100K." I see what you are saying now, but it almost read to me that it would be a $688 increase.

The easy calculation for the increase is per $100; so, for every $100 you add $.275 (increase only). $100,000/100 = 1000*.275 = $275. The original proposal was $.49 per $100 or $490 per $100K.

Home values have skyrocketed; they won't ever go back to where the were relative to their meteoric increases of late....homes were we severely undervalued here compared to the rest of the nation.

Assessment values will be something to keep an eye on (I think they are reappraised every six years or so by the state); as market value is always well above assessment value.

IMO Home values are driven by demand and Putnam's demand is driven by the increase of people relocating here due to the national bad economy. Many of these people are probably retired now and use money/profit from the sale of their homes to buy/build in Putnam. This will end at some point as the economy and housing market gets worse. It's possible we will see a major national housing market crash much worse than 2008 with no ability for the government and/or federal reserve to intervene.

[Jumeby]

Originally Posted by JRR

I don't like tax increases any more than anyone else as I have to pay Algood city tax on top of the Putnam County tax. But a growing area creates growing demand for services and I'm not sure that I see a bad and worsening economy here. And it appears that Putnam County has been losing experienced people due to the lower pay scale. Having a constant revolving door of employees being hired and then leaving for better opportunities doesn't really benefit anyone. This probably should have been addressed previously, but it is a tough step to take.

Hopefully this increase will get us to where we need to be for a while but it is going to be a bitter pill to swallow for now.

The country tax base goes up with every person who moves to Putnam without increasing taxes.

The biggest problem I see is with all the Putnam citizens who have lived in Putnam for years/decades who are already or near struggling to survive because their income is not increasing with the cost of living here. This could become a major problem in Putnam. People who are retired or near and who did everything right in life to prepare for retirement might soon find they don't have enough.

[qizilbash]

This is to OP, not to JRR, who always has nuanced, thoughtful posts.

This is only going to really affect you if you're living paycheck to paycheck and barely holding on to your mortgage. But if that's the case, you're probably not a property owner anyway. You'll be fine. Taxation is not theft. Maybe you see it as a slap in the face, but not providing for the people here who actually contribute to the community (you know, who work here and create culture here, not just who have taken their ball and retired to a state that doesn't steal mah hard-earned income) is a slap in the face to them. And in a community, who is more important? Hint: it's not you.

If you really want to dig into this, be upset that the sheriff misled people (or was generally incompetent--which is worse?) about the externalities associated with the jail expansion (having to buy up prime downtown-adjacent commercial land for parking lots, all those extra employees) and that our county commission decided to locate one of the largest high schools in the state on a side of town in which the infrastructure has repeatedly not been able to handle the traffic. Poor/laissez-faire planning costs a lot more in the long run, but effective long-term planning is "socialism." Pick your poison.

And if taxes are such a burden (they're not), there's always Cape Coral, Florida:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIqxfBhlwx0&t=162s

[Jumeby]

Originally Posted by qizilbash

This is to OP, not to JRR, who always has nuanced, thoughtful posts.

This is only going to really affect you if you're living paycheck to paycheck and barely holding on to your mortgage. But if that's the case, you're probably not a property owner anyway. You'll be fine. Taxation is not theft. Maybe you see it as a slap in the face, but not providing for the people here who actually contribute to the community (you know, who work here and create culture here, not just who have taken their ball and retired to a state that doesn't steal mah hard-earned income) is a slap in the face to them. And in a community, who is more important? Hint: it's not you.

If you really want to dig into this, be upset that the sheriff misled people (or was generally incompetent--which is worse?) about the externalities associated with the jail expansion (having to buy up prime downtown-adjacent commercial land for parking lots, all those extra employees) and that our county commission decided to locate one of the largest high schools in the state on a side of town in which the infrastructure has repeatedly not been able to handle the traffic. Poor/laissez-faire planning costs a lot more in the long run, but effective long-term planning is "socialism." Pick your poison.

And if taxes are such a burden (they're not), there's always Cape Coral, Florida:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIqxfBhlwx0&t=162s

Your correct, it's not about me. I will survive but I know a lot of people are struggling here and as a citizen of this community I will speak out when I see potentially bad decisions by the local government. You justly pointed out a few other potentially bad decisions made by the local government here and I agree with you. Maybe the local government is poorly managing Putnam county and maybe they can find better means to increase employee wages without raising property taxes.

[JMT]

I think some people are freaking out at the Herald-Citizen headline ("Committee proposed 27.5-cent tax increase") and think it's a "27.5 percent" tax increase. To put it into perspective, on a $400,000 house this would cost an extra $22.92 in property taxes a month. For old timers like me who bought our homes before Cookeville was "discovered" and were able to buy something for much less than $400k, at my current assessment this will cost me an extra $7.45 a month. I will gladly pay the extra $7.45 a month if it means a fully funded jail, higher salaries for teachers and other county employees, and more money for other much-needed county projects.

I know that no one likes paying more taxes, but it's unreasonable to assume that the nutty rate of inflation these last couple of years hasn't affected our county government's purchasing power.