Judge Hutchins proposes Fiscal Court adopt a lower property tax rate

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024 — Nelson Fiscal Court approved the first reading of the new property tax rate for the new fiscal year.

The magistrates voted to reduce the property tax rate from 12.7 cents per $100 value to 12.0 cents per $100 value.

This means that Nelson County property owners whose property value has not changed will see a slight decrease in the taxes paid to Nelson Fiscal Court.

Last year, the fiscal court lowered the property tax rate a full point, from 13.7 cents to 12.7 cents per $100 value.

The new 12.0 property tax rate is slightly more than the compensating rate of 11.8 cents per $100 value. The compensating rate is the tax rate that is believed to generate roughly the same amount of tax revenue as last year.

The state Revenue Cabinet provides the county with tax rates, including a rate that will generate 4 percent more in tax revenue.

LATE GARBAGE BILL COLLECTION. The court discussed efforts to collect the more than $580,000 in delinquent garbage bills that Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins discovered when he took office 18 months ago.

Salt River Electric receives a fee from the county to send bills for the county’s garbage collection service. The utility collects the fees and forwards them to the county — if the customer pays the garbage bill.

Since the county implemented universal garbage collection in 1996, some customers chose to not pay their garbage bills. For customers who pay their Salt River utility bill late, the company’s apparent practice has been to only require customers to pay the utility portion of their bill. This meant that Salt River collected nothing for that month’s garbage bill.

Customers who paid their electric bills late using Salt River Electric’s online portal were apparently not billed for the late garbage fee. It was a practice that the magistrates seemed unaware of.

However, Salt River has recently updated its practices. Now, the utility is sending delinquent notices to its customers who have past-due garbage bills. Some customers are also receiving delinquent garbage fee notices from Nelson Fiscal Court.

Hutchins said the collection efforts are an attempt to make sure those who receive county services help pay for them.

The court also discussed adding the delinquent garbage fees to the property tax bills — a move that Magistrate Keith Metcalfe opposed.

Metcalfe said the garbage bill is the responsibility of the tenant, not the landlord. As the owner of rental property, he questioned the fairness of forcing a landlord to pay for a tenant’s delinquent garbage bill.

The court took no action regarding additional steps to collect the delinquent garbage bills.

MISSED REVENUE OPPORTUNITY. In addition to the more than half a million in delinquent garbage fees, Hutchins pointed to the fact that the county’s share of the barrel tax will begin declining until it disappears in 2042.

And thanks to Industrial Revenue Bonds approved in the past by county government, the county will be prohibited from collecting property taxes on those properties included in the IRBs. Some IRBs will be in effect even after the barrel tax disappears, causing more lost revenue for the county.

Hutchins said the IRBs approved before his administration has had the effect of taking tax money out of county coffers, and that over time, they will artificially increase taxpayers’ bills by keeping taxable distillery property off the tax rolls.

All of this comes at a time when county government continues to update its technology that’s out-of-date due, Hutchins said, to what he called “a legacy of underfunding” by the prior administration.

In other business, the court approved —

— a bid for a new wood chipper that will allow road crews to clean up downed trees more efficiently.

— approved a bid of $111,618 for a Jet Rodder, a device that the county crews will use to clean out clogged culverts and leachate drain lines at the landfill.

— approved taking the roads in Oak Ridge subdivision and Oak Trace subdivision into the county’s road maintenance plan.

— approved the county treasurer’s report for Fiscal Year 2024 including a listing of vendors who were paid more than $1,000 by Nelson Fiscal Court.

NEXT UP. Nelson Fiscal Court will next meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024.

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