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Senior Property Tax Relief Headlines Monday Meeting ANDY MEEK | The Daily News For most of its history, Shelby County government has by and large depended on a single, steady flow of cash to pay for itself. The proportion has dropped a little over the years, but today, property taxes still comprise between 63 percent and 65 percent of every dollar the county spends, estimates county trustee Bob Patterson. Small wonder, it would seem, that local political leaders lately have been hinting that they're more eager than ever to consider some form of tax on the thousands of commuters who work in the county but don't live in it. For those who do live inside the limits, Shelby County mailed out the latest property tax bills in September. The City of Memphis sends out its bills each June. And as those tax bills no doubt reveal, it takes a lot more to fund municipal government these days than it did a century, a decade or even a few years ago. Relief for fixed-income crowd That's presumably why Tennesseans last week voted overwhelmingly to protect elderly homeowners from the tax increases that are a fact of life for anyone enjoying the American Dream. The item - one of two proposed amendments to the state constitution on the Nov. 7 ballot - passed with 83 percent support. And it's not difficult to see why, especially locally. Property taxes remain Shelby County's largest money maker, and Patterson said the county's current population - more than 910,000 - tops that of six U.S. states. A Shelby County homeowner currently pays $1,022 a year in taxes on a $100,000 home. If the county's current tax rate were raised by, say, 50 cents - which isn't an unlikely figure, given that's what Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton recently said it would take to pay for extra police the city needs - that county tax bill becomes $1,147 a year. Such increases squeeze seniors on fixed incomes - like Sue Williams, who lives in Memphis' storied Evergreen neighborhood - especially hard. "You know, you still want to live comfortably and adequately at this age, and it just gets a little harder and harder," said Williams, who has lived in the same two-story brick home on Stonewall Street in Midtown for more than 80 years. Costing of living - and aging Williams, whose voice has the same cheery warble as a character in a Disney film, exercises three mornings a week and has been involved for years in civic organizations such as the Evergreen Garden Club and the Evergreen Historic District Association. The neighborhood where she lives is the same one targeted decades ago - unsuccessfully - by the federal government, which once wanted to run Interstate 40 through Overton Park. In spite of the progress, one thing endures there and elsewhere in the city and county: property tax bills that keep getting higher. Memphis senior citizens like Williams also are hit doubly hard by big swings in property taxes, since city residents pay both a city and a county tax. "When you're a widow on an annuity - although they sometimes have very small cost of living increases and things - they still don't keep up with the way the assessments run," Williams said. Last week's ballot item, which appeared as Amendment 2, was spearheaded largely by State Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who's championed the cause of property tax relief for the state's seniors for six years. He sponsored legislation that put the issue before voters last week because existing language in the state constitution actually bars legislators from granting tax relief for elderly homeowners.
Breaking with tradition Norris' bid to tweak that section of the state constitution is also historic because the document rarely has been amended. Tennessee's Constitution until the 1950s was famous as the oldest un-amended constitution in the nation, according to information from the Tennessee Historical Society. "Passage of Amendment 2 was an important day in the history of Tennessee for the future of our senior citizens, and it was a big step in the right direction," Norris said. At the moment, though, the amendment's importance is because of what it makes possible, rather than what it prescribes. For example, lawmakers still have to go back to the drawing board when the Tennessee General Assembly returns to session in January and begin deciding what framework they'll come up with for the tax relief. As it stands now, cities and counties have the option to grant that relief to homeowners age 65 and older. The amendment doesn't create a free pass for seniors; rather, on the day a homeowner turns 65, his or her current tax rate may be frozen permanently. For richer and poorer But there's still the matter of deciding on an income level for eligible seniors. Patterson, for example, said he definitely shouldn't benefit from the program; he lives in Memphis and meets the age requirement, but he also earns a six-figure income. In addition, he estimates that it could be late 2007 or early 2008 before the logistics of the tax break are worked out and it becomes available for homeowners. But once a framework for the tax relief is set up, eligible homeowners will apply at their local trustee's office and do some kind of verification to prove their income is at or below a certain level. "And I have already filed a bill to address that," Norris said of the income level. "My hope is that we can address more of the middle-income earners in Tennessee through this program, because we already have a grant or rebate program for low-income seniors in Tennessee." On Monday, the Shelby County Commission's legislative committee is scheduled to discuss the issue of tax relief for local senior citizens. |
