Elizabethton City Council will again vote on new budget without property tax rate

ELIZABETHTON — The Elizabethton City Council will hold a public hearing on Thursday night and vote on the budget and property tax rate for the new fiscal year. While the steps are exactly the same as they have been in recent years, the one thing that will be different is that the exact property tax rate won't be spelled out in the ordinance the council will be approving. It is the second time this year that the council will approve a budget with the property tax rate unspecified. City Manager Daniel Estes said that the budget has been set up so that the city will have the same amount of revenue as the current year. He said the intent is for the property tax rate to bring in just enough money for it to be "revenue neutral". When the council passed the budget on first reading back in May, the ordinance indicated that the council intended to pass the state certified tax rate when that became known. The city's property tax rate for 2026 was set at $1.74. Since May, the Tennessee Comptroller's Office has announced the new certified tax rate for Elizabethton would go down from $1.74 to 93.05 cents. That big drop offsets the reappraisal that was conducted in Carter County this year which caused assessments to nearly double. The result was that the certified tax rate is at the revenue neutral position the city was seeking. But Estes said there is one more variable in the calculations for next year's revenue. That variable is the large number of people who have asked for the Board of Equalization to reconsider their property's reappraisal. Because the reappraisal were nearly double the old appraisals, many people had requested a Carter County Board of Equalization hearing before the certified tax rate was known. After speaking with the property assessor's office city staff decided that the appeals to the Equalization Board could have an impact upon the certified tax rate, bringing it down below the revenue neutral position. As a result of the pending appeals, city staff decided it would once again use the term certified tax rate on the June ordinance. Section 8 of the ordinance reads "this budget has been prepared on a property tax revenue neutral basis. It is the intention of the governing body to adopt a certified tax rate when it becomes available". Estes said that would be accomplished by having City Council approve a resolution during its July meeting to concur with the state's calculation of the certified tax rate after all the Board of Equalization adjustments have been completed. Carter County Assessor of Property Shane Simerly said his office had a lot of people requesting appointments with the Board of Equalization, but he said that changed when the certified tax rate was announced and property owners realized it was nearly half the old value. "We have had a lot of missed appointments and cancellations since then," Simerly said. When property owners did go before the board, he said the adjustments have been very small. He said there has not been a significant change for most property owners. These measures are addressed in the Tennessee Comptroller's Office Budget Manual for Local Governments, which is available online at. On Page 56 of the manual, it discusses the steps to follow when the certified tax rate was not yet known, which was the case with the first reading of the budget in May. The manual said "It is important not to include an estimated rate in the legal budget document or to separately adopt an estimated property tax rate. Instead, local officials should adopt the property tax rate after obtaining the certified tax rate from the State Board of Equalization." The manual recommends that the legal budget document include language stating that the governing body plans to adopt the certified tax rate when it is available. After become available, officials should follow the steps outlined by the State Board of Equalization and submit the tax levy adoption resolution or ordinance to the Division of Local Government Finance.