Hamilton County discusses tax relief for elderly, veteran, disabled & low income

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – If Hamilton county commissioners pass a proposed tax increase for the schools, property owners would foot the bill.

But county leaders are trying to protect low-income residents from that increase with a local Tax Relief program.

News 12’s Bill Mitchell has the details.

At Wednesdays meeting, Hamilton county commissioners moved to increase the county’s portion of the state’s property Tax Relief Program.

It went from 50 percent to 100 percent.

That program helps pay most of a homeowner’s property taxes, if they qualify as low income, elderly, disabled, or veteran status.

BILL HULLANDER, HAMILTON COUNTY TRUSTEE “A veteran’s house is appraised at one ninety-five, thousand, the state’s paying the first hundred and seventy-five thousand, which is about twelve hundred dollars. After that, the person may only owe a hundred dollars, so they could come to me, – I don’t think this would happen – I sure hope it wouldn’t – they could come say – well the state paid twelve hundred the county’s only paying a hundred, and they said they was going to match it so where’s my other thousand dollars?”

After some confusion about the wording, the county attorney re-wrote the resolution..which was passed at the end of the meeting.

COMMISSIONER WARREN MACKEY “The intent of this resolution, was to help elderly people, it was to help veterans, and like people. And last week, I asked the mayor: could we afford it? We don’t have an exact number, but he said yes.”

MAYOR JIM COPPINGER “Commissioner Mackey you’re exactly right, what I said was, if it was the will of the commission to pass this then it would be incumbent upon the finance team and myself to budget for it in the future so, we’re guessing that’s it’s for sure going to be under a million dollars.”

The additional tax relief resolution would only take effect if the commissioners vote for the 34-cent property tax increase in the next budget. That vote is set for next Wednesday.

iN Chattanooga, Bill Mitchell, News 12 Now.