Montgomery County, TN – In a special public meeting on June 21st, 2024, the Montgomery County Budget Committee conducted a final review of the proposed 2024-2025 budget.
After additional cuts, including the almost 30 million in reductions from previous budget meetings, the Budget Committee approved a budget to present before the full County Commission on July 8th at 4:30pm, with a proposed county property tax rate of $2.18. A public hearing will be held at 5:00pm on July 15th followed by a special budget voting session at 6:00pm.
When the revaluation was completed in spring of this year, property values in Montgomery County and across Middle Tennessee realized increases between 52.8% to 72.8%, with an average 64.5% increase for Montgomery County. The current tax rate for Montgomery County is $2.99, which was established in 2019. The certified tax rate from the State of Tennessee Board of Equalization set a revenue-neutral amount of $1.83 for Montgomery County.
If a proposed tax rate of $2.18 is approved by the County Commission, the average home valued at $346,000 will pay approximately $25.00 more per month. Each penny added to the tax rate is valued at $894,000.
“One of our greatest challenges is that inflation for materials has increased by 22.88% since 2019. The Budget Committee spent many hours listening to presentations from every elected office and department. Our focus remains on education, infrastructure, and public safety, and that is what we’ve done with this budget,” said Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden.
The adjustments made by the Budget Committee during the budget process resulted in nearly 30 million in reductions from the proposed requests with more than 20 million in capital projects and another 10 million in personnel requests, reclassifications, and capital outlay.
“Adding any burden to our residents is not something anyone wants to do, but we are not making good headway in paying down our debt at our current rate. To be good stewards of tax revenue, we need to pay more than we owe, which requires making changes to the budget,” said Mayor Golden.
It is important to note debt from the F&M Bank Arena is not funded through property taxes but through industrial pilot project funds and hotel/motel taxes.
To calculate individual county property tax amounts based on the proposed rate, plug in a property value along with the proposed rate of $2.18 using the example found at www.mcgtn.org/assessor/property-tax-and-proration-calculators on the Assessor of Property Office web page.
