Putnam County Commissioners set to study the idea of a property tax freeze.
The program would allow the county to freeze property tax rates for low-income individuals over 65 years old. Commissioner Vinnie Faccinto said he began looking into this program after an 18.8-cent property tax increase passed earlier this year.
“The overwhelming majority of them understood that the County had to build a new jail and there were some pressing things that need to be done,” Faccinto said. “But I definitely talked to a few people who a property tax increase was going to put them in a difficult situation.”
Faccinto said the commission had formed committees to explore this program in the past, but it was never brought before the commission to vote on. Faccinto said he hopes the study can at least produce knowledge to bring the property tax freeze to a vote.
“I definitely think there is a need for this in our county,” Faccinto said. “You have to weigh the costs with the rewards. This might not be the right program for the county. It does have some early indicators that it will help, but you really don’t want to go into it with the thought process of, I’m trying to push this through. I’m not looking at it that way. I want to do a good, detailed study.”
The State Legislature made this program available to counties in 2006. Faccinto said roughly 25 counties in the state are already using this program. He said the process of setting the program up correctly is where he has seen the tax freeze be most successful.
“There’s some counties who have had success with the program, providing they hired some people properly and get them trained up and didn’t stack it on top of what the trustees and the county’s assessors office was already doing,” Faccinto said. “It is a labor intensive program.”
The other members of the committee are Commissioners Kathy Dunn, Cathy Reels, and Ben Rodgers.
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