On the hand of your choosing, I want you to take the tips of your pinky, ring, middle and index fingers, and together touch them to the tip of your thumb. Now look at your hand. Do you know what that represents? It represents exactly how much the Hamilton County assessor of property’s office has to do with issuing a senior tax freeze.
Zero. Zilch. Goose egg.
But if you weren’t previously aware of that reality, the rhetoric around this year’s race for the office might convince you otherwise. While no Tennessee county assessor has the authority to issue limits on the property tax rate of senior residents, Democratic candidate Mark Siedlecki has made a senior tax freeze the central plank of his campaign.
Columnist David MartinWe’ve all heard politicians make promises they have no intention of keeping. Just turn on CNN or Fox News right now, and you’ll see evidence a-plenty of this behavior. This tax freeze maneuver, though, it’s a new one to me: leading voters (senior citizens, especially) to think you’ll take substantive action on a particular issue that doesn’t fall within the jurisdiction of the office you’re pursuing. Talk about a head-scratcher.
In case you’re wondering, assessors primarily appraise, classify and (duh) assess taxable property. That’s about it. Assessors do not set tax rates, nor do they have the power to freeze them. Siedlecki may as well be promising senior citizens that if he’s elected, they won’t have to pay for parking on downtown Chattanooga streets or that they’ll get free curbside garbage pickup.