Property tax rates will be rolled back next year in Hamilton and Bradley counties to offset the increase in tax assessments in existing properties since the last countywide reappraisals four years ago.
On Monday, the state Board of Equalization certified a new county property tax levy in Bradley County of $1.7084 per $100 of assessed property, or 9 percent less than the previous rate of $1.8721 per $100 of assessed value. A similar cut is planned for properties in the city of Cleveland, which will drop its certified rate from $1.7655 rate to $1.6091 per $100 of assessed property to offset higher property values since the last reappraisal in 2013.
“As the economy has come back, property values have increased over the past four years, which is far different than in our last reappraisal [in 2013], when we actually saw an average decline in property values over the previous four years for the first time,” Bradley County Assessor Stanley Thompson said Monday.
Across Tennessee, property values have grown nearly 10 percent, on average, since 2013, according to the property reappraisals completed in 22 of the state’s 95 counties this year, including Hamilton, Bradley, Sequatchie and Franklin counties in Southeast Tennessee.
Under Tennessee law, increases in the value of existing properties don’t automatically increase property taxes paid since any increase in assessments of existing property must be offset by a drop in the tax rate.