An issue out of the hands of the Hamilton County assessor of property has become the main issue in the race for the job in the Aug. 4 general election.
Earlier this year, Democrat candidate Mark Siedlecki suggested property taxes for seniors should be frozen, given a 2006 election outcome by Tennessee voters that allowed county and municipal governments to freeze taxes for qualified seniors. Since his Republican opponent, Marty Haynes, is a member of the Hamilton County Commission, which has not implemented the freeze, the implication was clear that he was not interested in the welfare of seniors.
"It is immoral for commissioners not to enact this," Siedlecki told the Times Free Press editorial board.
And whether it was the Democrat's intent, the impression also has been left with voters that the assessor of property might have a say-so in that senior tax freeze. If he could be elected, the notion was, the Democrat would be - in the words on the bottom of his campaign signs - an "advocate for seniors."
However, Haynes has made it clear he is open to a senior tax freeze when, as apparently has been discussed among County Commission members, the body next raises property taxes. And he also turned the issue back to Siedlecki, wondering why his opponent's campaign manager, Chattanooga Councilman Chris Anderson, hasn't advocated for a similar freeze for Chattanooga city government.
"I'm not opposed to voting for it," Haynes said. "I'm just not seeing it as a crisis."
Since then, the opponents have traded charges as to whether and how much county taxes have risen since Haynes joined the County Commission. Siedlecki has pointed out how Hamilton County property tax collections have increased (from properties that have increased in value), while Haynes has figures to show how some individual home owners have paid less.
Neither candidate has worked in the office of the assessor of property, but both have attributes that might recommend their election. Both men have more than 30 years of experience in business, Siedlecki having started his own companies in the burgeoning technology industry and Haynes having worked in the private sector (and served as a county commissioner since 2012).
Both agree the technology in the office must be updated and access to records increased. Siedlecki believes two programs, Pictometry, in which "low-flying aircraft with [powerful] cameras" capture images of property, and Spatialest, a software program which uses local patterns and trends to help determine property values, could offer specific assistance. Haynes feels the office's website must be made more user friendly and the payment of personalty taxes (personal property taxes) should be an "easier process" and offer a more "accurate report."
Haynes also believes the office should do more cross-training and offer better communications skills with the rising number of Hispanics in the county. He also has concerns about the high personnel costs in the office.
Siedlecki, who has studied the Davidson County (Nashville) assessor of property office with an eye toward improvement in Hamilton County, wants to make the property tax appeals process easier, bulk up the use of the office's core Patriot Properties computer system and run the office "fiscally intelligently."
We have in the past been appreciative of Haynes' fiscal responsibility on the County Commission, especially for his decision in 2015 not to join six of his colleagues to override Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger's budget veto when commissioners decided to pull out $900,000 from the rainy-day fund and create individual $100,000 discretionary funds for each commissioner.
For that proven fiscal responsibility, for his desire to make the office more accessible and transparent, and for his desire to run the operation in the competent manner of his predecessors Claude Ramsey and Bill Bennett, we endorse his election as assessor of property.