Tax Cut, Really?
| The Lenoir City council and mayor were excited to
announce, at their last meeting, that they were cutting their property
tax rate by 5 cents. Aikens and the three council members up for
re-election, really wanted to talk about the tax cut. Council member
Jennifer Wampler wanted to talk about how long it had been since the
city raised the property tax, "not since I've been on council" is that
right mayor? And for the very first time, Aikens had to admit the city
did in fact raise the property tax in 2021. Wampler was caught a little
off guard because, of course, she was on the council and voted for the
property tax increase as well as for the Rain Tax. But she's sure been
criticizing the county for their 16% tax increase for schools but voted
for a 17% property tax increase for no particular reason.
When council raised the property tax rate in 2021, not a single person showed up at the meeting to complain. Probably because no one knew they were going to do it. So, back in 2021, the council voted unanimously to raise the city property tax by 17%, or 14 cents. That property tax increase was just rolled into their general fund operating budget. So now they come out with great fanfare about a 5 cent cut, but never mentioned how much the property tax went up in 2021. So in essence, the city just reduced their 2021 property tax increase to 9 cents, the same amount as what Loudon City just did. Now let's go way back in time, all the way back to less than three months ago. Mayor Aikens and team and the city school system were pushing a very large sales tax increase, half for the schools and half for the city. Of course the sales tax failed. Obviously we now know, the city didn't really need the sales tax increase after all, if they can now reduce their property tax rate. One would assume the city schools still need money. Maybe Aikens could have shifted those tax pennies to the city school system or maybe just eliminate the $18,000.00 the city school system pays the city in Rain Taxes. I don't think anybody in the Lenoir City doesn't see through what this 5 cent rollback is about. Aikens and company are trying anything they can to assure their re-election. Obviously, mayor Aikens doesn't care how much of the city tax payer's money he has to spend to get re-elected, he'll do it. Below is a link to the council meeting. The tax break conversation starts at about the 6:10 point of the meeting. It's worth the watch. |
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7/1/24