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Hamilton County: Small group turns out for tax freeze meeting

By: Matt Wilson
(Contact)

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Bill Hullander

Only seven people showed up Thursday evening for a meeting to discuss a proposed match to a state property-tax relief program and a tax freeze for senior citizens 65 and up.

Hamilton County Commissioner Bill Hullander, who called the meeting in Harrison, said the low turnout may be because people just didn’t know about the meeting or because they just want the commission to make a decision.

“It could be that they (feel they) elected me to do what they need,” he said.

Attendance at an earlier East Ridge meeting, called by Commissioner Curtis Adams, wasn’t much better.

Commissioners have spent more than a year mulling over a program that would freeze seniors’ tax bills at their current amounts. Under a freeze, an eligible senior — one who makes $32,890 in 2008 or less — would pay the same amount of tax even if tax rates went up or the assessed value of their homes increased.

The General Assembly last year passed a constitutional amendment giving local governments the ability to institute such a freeze. So far, 19 counties have implemented the freeze, according to the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury.

But Hamilton County officials have called the freeze proposal too complicated and expensive to implement. Some have suggested a 50 percent match to the state relief program, which provides rebates to taxpayers, as an alternative.

To be eligible for that program, a senior 65 or older must make $24,790 or less this year.

Leon McDaniel, 66, who attended the meeting, said he wasn’t sure that either program would help him too much.

Mr. McDaniel said he owns 54 acres of land, 49 more than the five acres the freeze would cover. But he makes too much from Social Security and retirement to apply for the tax relief program, he said.

“I’d be better off just to stay where I’m at,” he said.

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