Putnam County Commissioners Budget Committee got data on a significant drop in the local property tax rate Monday night.
Putnam County Property Assessor Steve Pierce said the preliminary certified tax rate has been set at $1.61, down from $2.60 from the previous year. That follows the reappraisal just completed.
“It’s dropped a $1.05, historically it’s probably the biggest drop that’s ever been in tax that I’ve ever seen,” Pierce said. “Many of you have been in county government a long time, but that’s big.”
Pierce said the reappraisal process is mandated by state law and occurs every five years to ensure property assessments reflect current market conditions. Pierce said residential property values increased by an average of 69 percent and commercial values rose by 74 percent. Pierce said the new penny rate is $401,709.
Pierce said the county began the quality control process for these appraisals in August to ensure the data was as accurate as possible before mailing notices to residents. Pierce said property owners who wish to contest their new assessments can participate in informal reviews or file a formal appeal with the County Board between June 1 and June 22.
“We’ll help them with comps or things like that they need or tell them what they need to bring to appeal to the board so they can give evidence to the board of what they think the value should be,” Pierce said.
Budget Chairman Ben Rodgers thanked Pierce and his team for their work, and said he urged citizens concerned about their tax rate do their due diligence before expressing outrage online.
“I had a neighbor, she yelled at me for a few minutes the other night and she was calculating her taxes on the $2.60 (tax rate),” Rodgers said. “Well if you do that, yeah, it’s going to be high. So I had to calm her down, say it’s $1.6008, calculated the taxes and her taxes went down. So just ask questions.”
Mayor Randy Porter said the county is currently in a strong financial position with revenue projections for the fiscal year reaching approximately 64 million dollars. Porter said the county has benefited from high federal interest rates on its fund balances, which are projected to generate four and a half million dollars in interest revenue this year.
“So that $4.5 million that we’re bringing in has allowed us not to raise taxes to make up for a lot of the inflation,” Porter said. “It’s allowed us to not have to do that and we’ve been able to use that those revenues coming in from the interest to be able to fund a lot of our expenditures.”
Porter said the county currently maintains a fund balance equivalent to about six months of expenditures, providing a safety net for emergencies. Porter said this financial cushion prevents the county from having to borrow money through tax anticipation notes to cover costs before property taxes are collected.
“We all know when the 2020 tornado hit all of a sudden the county’s spending millions of dollars on all kinds of stuff cleanup and everything and then we’re having to wait years to get our money back from FEMA,” Porter said. “A lot of places had to borrow money just to do their stuff.”
Rodgers said the budget committee must now deliberate on whether to recommend the state-certified rate of $1.6008 to the full commission or propose a modified rate. Rodgers said any recommendation to set a rate higher than the certified amount would require a legally mandated public hearing.
“So that’s the certified tax rate the state has issued us,” Rodgers said. “Second thing he gave us was the penny value. That penny value is what we use to calculate property tax revenue so we can figure out what we can fund in services. That penny rate has jumped. I’ve never seen a county jump this high.”
The Putnam County Budget Committee will meet again on Thursday, May 28 at 5pm to hear updated revenue figures and specific departmental requests.
