Warren County government is seeking to cash in on a little-known law that allows it to charge cities for using its property tax appraisal information. 

According to a Tennessee statute that has been in place since 1998, a county can charge cities a portion of what it spends generating property assessments due to those cities using that information to collect their own property taxes. 

“The county can ask cities that collect taxes to pay a portion of my budget because they use my assessments to base their tax rates on,” said Warren County Property Accessor Beth Martin to members of the county Budget and Finance Committee. “With that in place, we figured we should be able to collect over $53,000 between the city of McMinnville and the city of Morrison. That should take care of everything extra that I’m asking for in this upcoming budget year.”

Calculations for the 2018-19 year for the city of McMinnville totals $49,899, while the city of Morrison’s cost would be $3,432. Those numbers change from year to year because the values are calculated based on different variables. 

Those variables include the assessor’s total budget for the fiscal year, the total number of parcels in the county, and in each of the cities for that year, and what the costs for the audits on personal property are each year.

Martin said she became aware of the law approximately three years ago, but the suggestion to utilize the law was met with resistance by a former county executive. 

“I’ve been working with County Executive Jimmy Haley to begin collecting that revenue,” said Martin. “We’re just asking them to pay their portion.”

For the upcoming fiscal year of 2019-20, the proposed budget for the Property Assessor’s Office totals $452,908, if remained unchanged through the budget-setting process.

Haley said he’s already spoken to McMinnville city administrator Nolan Ming, city attorney Tim Pirtle, and Morrison Mayor Sue Anderson about the county’s intent to collect. 

“I’ve already talked to both cities and turned over that information to them,” said Haley. “The previous administration didn’t want to pursue this, but when Mrs. Martin brought it to my attention early on, we’ve been getting those numbers together and doing research.”

Morrison and McMinnville governments have the right to dispute the requested amount. If that occurs, a negotiation will be undertaken to reach an agreement.

Martin stated the additional funds could offset her request of $40,000 to hire two part-time personnel in the upcoming budget.

“My office needs help, big time,” said Martin. “This is a reappraisal year. We are fixing to go through a lot of work. We’d appreciate the help. This isn’t temporary. I’m asking for permanent because I need it all the time, but we really need it this year for reappraisal. We had stacks upon stacks to key in last time.”

Warren County government is in the final stages of its budget-setting process.