A lot of county property tax bills will go up next year, but County Mayor Jim Coppinger and Hamilton County commissioners are not calling it a tax increase.
It's a matter of semantics - a Greek-derived word for the manipulation of meaning.
Or you could think of it as fold in the fabric of political governing. A pleat to give commissioners cover from the outcry of some disappointed residents. A tuck to hide the unpleasant sight of making sausage.
But here's the good news. No matter what Coppinger and commissioners call it, it is both a sign of our county's progress and a hopeful indicator of future progress.
No one wants to pay taxes. Any taxes, let alone more taxes. But having a great community to live in is not free. We have to pay for schools to be built and teachers to be hired and sewage to be drained and jail cells to house the people our police arrest for crimes. We have to pay for roads to be built. We have to keep our water and land clean.
So very quietly over the past several months, Coppinger and commissioners have looked at what our county needs vs. what our county has.
The progress we've made is marked by the plain and simple growth of the county - growth that, by state law, meant the county's recent property reappraisal could not create by itself tax revenue increases for us all, increases based simply on the rise in our property's value over the past four years. And most of our properties did increase in value.
That means the county had to lower its property tax millage rate, so that we don't overpay.
The caveat in that state law is that county and municipal governments are allowed to change the millage rate. They can lower it to the new certified rate and keep revenue even, or they can raise it to any percentage point above that new rate and see a revenue increase - in essence, a hike in tax revenues.
Coppinger plans to introduce resolutions that do both of those things. He's going to give us a tax break, then he's going to raise the millage rate back to where it was and let the county gain that property value growth and a little more, but with the newly certified millage rate.
The result for many of us is a tax increase. The result on paper is no tax increase because the millage rate stays right where it has been for the last four years. Coppinger said Tuesday afternoon that his decision was one of "last resort," given the mounting needs our county faces.
"Tomorrow, I will present two resolutions to the county commission relating to the millage rate: The first will be to reduce the county's millage rate to the certified tax rate of $2.4976," the mayor said in a news statement. "This resolution is a result of the every four-year property reappraisal process and is required by the state of Tennessee. The second resolution will be to reset the millage rate back to $2.7652. This will be an increase of 26.76 cents."
On the county's revenue line, that means an increase of $25 million a year - over and beyond the normal growth revenue. For most homeowners that increase of about 9 or 10 percent a year will mean nearly $100 more on the average tax property bill each year. An analogy we've used here before is that it will cost maybe as much as a new hallway rug, or maybe three or four bags of dog food.
The additional revenue would be directed toward building a regional sewage treatment plant in the northeast part of the county at a capital cost of about $45 million, upgrading the Silverdale Workhouse and adding additional beds - in essence building a much-needed new jail, and building one or two new schools while also addressing some of the most pressing capital needs like new roofs, windows and athletic facilities at existing schools.
Our county made progress just with growth. And now with many of us paying it forward, we should create yet more progress - especially in education and the infrastructure gains that will allow perhaps as many as 10,000 more homes to be built in the northeast portion of the county where a lack of sewer systems has long stymied development.
Each one of the those new houses will pay more property taxes for still more growth.
And students who graduate jobs-ready likely will get good-paying and steady work that allows them to buy or build one of those houses and to buy goods that produce more sales tax revenue. If too many of our students don't get a good education - as is now the case - they will not get a good job. In fact, they will more likely be a drain on our collective purses as they cycle in and out of the new jail cells our new tax dollars are buying.
There is still one more important piece of progress our county commissioners must consider: a senior tax break.
Tell your county mayor and county commissioners you're proud of them. Tell them to support the mayor's proposals. Even if they are hiding behind semantics.