While the City may be pressing onward and researching the senior tax freeze, the County seems to be nowhere close. But Commissioner Eric Maddox who originated the idea with his friend and City Councilman Josh Blevins is hopeful the Commission will make a motion soon on this proposal.
“Last year I mentioned this idea to a close friend of mine; Councilman Josh Blevins; and asked him if he thought that we could work together on something that would benefit our county overall. I told him about the idea and he immediately agreed; and adamantly also said that we should do something.”
Maddox said he will be bringing this proposal officially to the Rules and Legislative Committee this month, in order to officially start the process.
“This initiative will also not have an impact on others in the county, as the program would have a minimal impact on the budget overall; and something that should easily be able to be managed – from a budgeting perspective.”
“My hope is that we can get this to a vote before our June special session; where we will finalize the budget for the county. I look forward to other commissioners supporting this, allowing us (Bedford County) to follow suit with many other counties, who have done the right thing here; and that’s create a property tax freeze for tax payers sixty-five and older, that would fall into the guidelines set by the state for such a program.”
Maddox advised, “It is way past time that we did this."
County Commissioner Greg Vick told the T-G this week, “I think it is a novel and great concept. I am of the opinion we should always provide a hand up to those who need help.
At this point, however, it is simply a concept. To date, we have not received a fiscal note on the cost of this concept. Nor do we know how many people qualify for a tax freeze. Additionally, we have not set the tax rate so we don’t know how to compare the amount of revenue required by the tax freeze as an off-set to meet our statutory requirement for our maintenance of effort commitment.”
Vick said as of right now, the Commission does not have enough information so as to make a proper determination of the impact this program will actually cost the taxpayers.
See more comments from Mayor Chad Graham and Commissioner Linda Yockey in the Jan. 8 edition of the T-G.