MJ City Property Tax

On June 28, 2021 at the BOC meeting, the Board unanimously voted to approve a cut in the city’s property tax down to .11/per $100 of the assessed value. Prior to passing the budget the city’s rate was .1664. The state does assessments every four years and sets a Certified Tax Rate (CTR). The Wilson County property tax assessments were sent out this spring, which were only assessments and not a tax rate. The state had not issued the CTR at that time. The city of MJ passed it’s 21/22 budget at second reading on June 14th. In order to pass the budget, (by state law by July 1st) a motion was made to “reduce” the city’s rate from .1664 to .15 which passed unanimously. I did not know at the time that the state had issued the CTR of .1243. So if the city were to keep the .15, it ultimately would mean a 20% increase in the city’s property tax. I was opposed to an increase.

At the June 28th BOC, I motioned to amend the .15 and adopt the state’s CTR of .1243, which would mean no increase, yet bring in an additional $25,000 over 2020 revenues. Vice Mayor Justice motioned to amend my amendment and cut the rate down to .11 since we had $7M in sales tax revenue for 20/21 budget, over budget expectations. I stated it sounds good, but it potentially would mean a tax increase later if it proves to be too much of a cut. I felt it was better to stay the course and maintain by adopting the CTR. His amendment passed 4/1. I opposed because there is chance of having to increase in the future. At the final ordinance vote to set the rate at .11, it passed 5-0. I supported setting the rate for the 21/22 budget at .11 for the final vote.