ARPA funding diverted from Humane Society, other alternatives to tax bill being explored
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- In the past two weeks, the Humane Educational Society told the Hamilton County Commission they were facing an over $500,000 property tax bill, despite being a non-profit.
With that, the Commission voted on whether or not to give them over $200,000 of federal funding.
HES executive director Rebecca Bryan said, “We were hoping to get funding to continue our animal services for Hamilton County. The Humane Society cares a lot about the residents of Hamilton County. We have been providing animal services for a very long time.”
The Commission elected to give funds that originally marked for HES to a series of park projects.
Those park projects are as follows per the county parks and recreation department:
“Parks & Rec and Emergency Management Projects Resolution 1224-30B
Emergency Management projects: $40,000.00
Snow Hill field improvements: $45,000.00
Health Dept. visual exercise system educator pack for Hamilton County Schools PE Dept.: $20,000.00
ADA Concrete path at Ooltewah Youth Association ball fields: $20,000.00
Bike skills equipment at various parks throughout Hamilton County: $20,000.00
Inclusive playground equipment: $25,000.00
Additional funding granted on 12/18/2024 to be used for repair and maintenance for playground equipment throughout Hamilton County: $41,138.25
Total Funding: $211,138.25″
Despite this change in funding, Commissioner Joe Graham proposed a different solution to the tax issue.
Graham said, “I took it upon myself to call the city and try to work out a deal with the city that if we as a county… provide a donation to the Humane Society for the amount of their taxes that are owed… then they can turn around and pay their taxes, which helps everybody.”
Furthermore, Hamilton County Trustee Bill Hullander, who oversees property tax collection in the county, says he’s been in communication with the state.
Hullander said, “There was something similar to this that’s happened before in another county, and we will need to get a state representative to help us with it.”
However, for other commissioners, they believe that the property tax situation should not have influenced this decision.
Commissioner David Sharpe said, “It seems as though that we just used parliamentary procedures to avoid paying for vital services for the county in order to fund discretionary projects.”
Bryan says that without this additional funding, HES will have to adjust moving forward in how to provide essential services.
She said, “If we don’t get funded for the services, we’re going to have to cut the $200,000 we didn’t get. This isn’t really a surprise. We requested higher funding at the beginning of this fiscal year and it wasn’t granted, so we said we were going to talk about it in the winter and here we are.”
Bryan says it is unclear what the timeline looks like for getting those taxes forgiven.
