Many residents may misunderstand the change made in Putnam County last week to change the reappraisal schedule.
Putnam County Property Assessor Steve Pierce said the change addresses state laws regarding equalization rates that discount public utilities and business properties when market values outpace appraisals. He said the previous schedule caused the county to miss out on significant revenue that otherwise shifts the tax burden to homeowners.
“I know in ’23 and ’25 together the county lost around $3 million in tax dollars, not necessarily lost, you just we didn’t receive them so we didn’t realize those tax dollars because they wouldn’t have come in,” Pierce said.
Pierce said state law requires an equalization ratio that discounts public utilities and tangible personal property owned by businesses. This discount occurs when the sales of real property outpace current appraisals, creating a gap in funding for county services.
“When you don’t have that, I mean the county pays for a wide range of services and when you don’t have that those moneys, it puts burden upon some group, some type of properties to to fill that gap,” Pierce said.
Pierce said the majority of the county’s 46,000 parcels are residential, meaning homeowners face increased pressure to cover the costs of county services when business property values are discounted.
“And even in reappraisal, when we raise values, the tax rate goes down,” Pierce said. “It has to. There’s a law there that says it has to.”
Pierce said the new schedule also protects tax relief calculations for the elderly and disabled veterans, which can be negatively impacted by the equalization ratio. He said the four-year cycle allows the office to operate efficiently without adding significant resources or employees.
“It’s about fairness, about stability and again helping those those two groups of the elderly and disabled vets too keeping that they can afford to pay their taxes and and can be part of the tax relief program if they qualify,” Pierce said.
The county will reappraise properties every four years instead of every five years. Many areas of Tennessee experiencing similar growth to Putnam County are making the change.