Postcards mailed to those eligible for TN Hurricane Helene property tax relief
The cards will go to those eligible for the property tax relief that the General Assembly passed last month providing homeowners whose property was damaged or destroyed with payments worth up to 130% of their total 2024 property tax levy.
TDOT awards contracts for Greene, Washington County bridge rebuilds
Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower told News Channel 11 that his office put 3,190 postcards in the mail on Thursday. The cards will explain how to apply for the relief.
'You'll be receiving a postcard from me,' Mumpower said. 'Once you get it, there will be a website, you go, you apply for the relief, we'll get you the check right away.'
Those who no longer have a mailbox due to the floods should go to their local property assessor's office, Mumpower said.
'We're providing materials to each property assessor that will allow you to apply for this relief that you deserve,' he said.
An estimated 3,230 properties across nine Northeast Tennessee were damaged or destroyed according to the comptroller's office.
Mumpower spoke with News Channel 11 at the Kingsport Chamber's Regional Legislative Breakfast, which brought lawmakers and elected officials to the MeadowView Marriott Conference Resort & Convention Center.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Gary Sanitary District hikes rates on neighbors in Hobart, Lake Station, Merrillville
The Gary Sanitary District board approved wastewater user rate increases Friday for the communities of Hobart, Lake Station and the Merrillville Conservancy District. The unanimous 4-0 vote came on the recommendation of GSD executive director Ragen Hatcher, who represents Hobart and Lake Station in the General Assembly, where she holds the District 3 House seat. The resolution states the new rates will be effective Sept. 1. They include a volume charge of $2.82 per thousand gallons of wastewater discharged and a monitoring fee of $1,844 per month. There could be additional fees if discharges exceed levels of ammonia, phosphorus, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, or total suspended solids. Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun urged the board to negotiate with the communities. 'The city of Hobart is not opposed to a rate increase; we're simply asking for a good faith negotiation… we understand everything is going up,' Huddlestun said. He urged the board to decline or table the rate increase resolution. Hatcher said its Indianapolis-based legal counsel, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, recommended the user fee rate increase based on direction from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 'We are under a requirement of the DOJ to make these changes to our rates,' Hatcher told the board. Hatcher said the rate increase would go to support the long-term control plan for combined sewer overflows. Gary has been under a federal consent decree for decades because of past overflows polluting streams, rivers and Lake Michigan. In a statement released Tuesday, GSD officials said its consent decree calls for $155 million in sewer system improvements over the next 15 years — nearly $12 million annually. 'This rate adjustment is one of several actions required by federal regulators as part of the Long-Term Control Plan,' the statement said. On Jan 15, the GSD and the city of Gary filed a federal lawsuit against Hobart, Lake Station and the Merrillville Conservancy District seeking a declaratory judgment to pave the way to raise user rate fees for treating their wastewater. That case is still pending in federal court. The two sides had been in negotiations for months. The user communities hired Indianapolis law firm Dentons Bingham Greenbaum LLP to negotiate and propose a settlement on their behalf. Gary responded with the federal lawsuit in January, contending the user rates for the three communities are decades old and too low to meet the requirements of a federal consent decree. The GSD first entered a wastewater treatment agreement with Lake Station in 1982. The complaint said the agreement expired in 2002, and GSD continued to provide treatment services under an implied fact contract at the 1982 rate. Hobart entered a contract with GSD in 1984 and GSD signed a pact with the MCD in 1995.
Axios
a day ago
- Axios
One key signal Florida homeowners are seeing some insurance relief
Florida home insurers collected more premiums than claims and expenses paid in 2024 — a rare occurrence, and even more so after three hurricanes struck the state that year. That's according to new data from the state Office of Insurance Regulation. Why it matters: Florida homeowners still face among the highest premiums in the nation, at an average of $3,815 per year. Catch up quick: The Sunshine State's vulnerability to storms has resulted in losses for insurers, which, in turn, are passed on to consumers. The result? A dismal insurance market, which for decades saw premiums skyrocket, companies go bankrupt, and an over-reliance on the state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The Legislature tried to flip that outlook in 2022, with reforms that aimed to create a more hospitable market for companies. But that didn't mean much for consumers then, who got no such relief. The latest: There are now signs of improvement, however modest. S&P Global found that Florida had the smallest increase (about 1%) in insurance premiums across the nation in 2024 and ranked it ninth overall for average home insurance cost that year. Dozens of new insurers have entered the market. All the while, the bloated state-run insurer offloaded tens of thousands of policies to the private sector, with some consumers now paying less. And last year, for the first time since 2015, home insurers raked in more than they paid out. What they're saying: "This is great news for consumers," says Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute. "Florida's always going to be above the national average because it's a high-risk state," he tells Axios. "But the market is improving." Yes, but: There's a lot to couch here. For one, S&P Global didn't account for Citizens — the state's largest insurer — when it evaluated Florida's rate increases, and a 6% statewide increase went into effect this summer. Plus, most home insurance policies cover wind, not flood damage. That means a considerable amount of devastation that hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton caused in Florida wasn't covered. What's next: Florida Peninsula Insurance, among the state's largest home insurers, requested a statewide decrease of 8.4% in its homeowners' premiums last week, per WFLA.
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
SEPTA moving forward with service cuts across Philadelphia region with no funding fix in place
With no SEPTA funding deal reached, deep service cuts to bus, train and trolley services in the Philadelphia region are looking more likely. SEPTA's deadline day to receive state funding is here, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly has not provided funding to fill the $213 million budget gap for the transit authority. The lack of a deal leaves several questions for passengers across the region, including residents who take public transit to work and students heading back to school in two weeks. SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer said the transit authority needed state funding by Aug. 14 to avoid disruptive cuts taking effect by Aug. 24. It would take about 10 days for the system to implement the new reduced schedules, making adjustments to things like train signals, digital signage at stations and on buses and more. "The 10 days between the deadline and the start of the new schedules is the bare minimum that we need to complete the multitude of tasks required to ensure that we can safely and efficiently transition service to new timetables," Sauer said in a recent news conference announcing the reduced schedules. Barring any last-minute deal, which seems unlikely, these cuts will likely start taking effect. Lawmakers on both sides have said they understand mass transit is important and they want to work toward a deal. But as of Thursday, what that deal looks like and where they go from here — with no bill on the table that can pass both chambers — is unclear. It's also unclear when the Pennsylvania House and Senate will be back in Harrisburg to discuss mass transit or the budget overall. These cuts would happen in two phases, with the first happening Aug. 24 and the second in January 2026. Sauer and other officials have warned that major service cuts would be the start of a "transit death spiral," where service cuts and fare increases result in fewer people using the system and paying fares, reducing revenue and necessitating further cuts. Sauer said Wednesday if funding comes through during the 10-day transition phase to reduced service, SEPTA would do its best to reverse the cuts quickly and have as minimal an impact on riders as possible. "We've been treating this as if it was an inevitability for months, to make sure when we get to this point, everything is in line to weather the storm, to blunt the impact on our customers as much as possible," assistant communications director Lex Powers said. A PDF of how each bus, train and trolley route will be impacted is available here on SEPTA's website, but here is a quick summary of the cuts that will take effect in August. Those cuts would be followed by a hiring freeze beginning Sept. 1 and a fare hike to $2.90, which would tie New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority for the highest fare in the country, though MTA may soon raise the fare to $3. If SEPTA makes it to January 2026 with no funding increase, these additional cuts would take place: A spokesperson said while SEPTA is holding out for something by the end of the day, they need to start getting ready. Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate wanted to draw around $300 million a year for the next two years from the Pennsylvania Transit Trust Fund. State Sen. Joe Picozzi of Northeast Philadelphia claimed the bill would be a "bridge" to fund SEPTA for the next two years while lawmakers work on a long-term solution. "It's a plan that sustains them until we can get long-term funding in place," Republican State Sen. Frank Farry said. "There's plenty of money in there and I can tell you, as I've talked to a lot of residents today, they're like, are you kidding me? The money for SEPTA is literally just sitting in a bank account in Harrisburg." House Democrats, SEPTA leaders and PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll came out against the plan Wednesday, arguing the GOP-backed plan would fund SEPTA's day-to-day operations with dollars meant for the future, taking away funding for things like infrastructure upgrades. SEPTA also pointed to a need to replace its aging rail cars, which general manager Scott Sauer said are more than 50 years old. Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, want to fund SEPTA through a tax on skill games, games similar to slot machines that are found in bars and convenience stores but operate through a legal loophole. Democrats in the legislature have said SEPTA's service cuts will lead to thousands of more cars on the roads and increase travel times, especially on the region's major highways. "I think it's difficult for a lot of people like me who live in the suburbs out here to get into the city for jobs," commuter Hannah Wenz said at the Wissahickon station on the Manayunk-Norristown Line, which would be under a 9 p.m. curfew starting in January. "I work in the hospital in the city, it's definitely affecting a lot of the workplace," Wenz said. Wenz added if she were not able to take SEPTA, she'd probably need to Uber to work. SEPTA without the cuts is "affordable for people like me, and it's convenient too," Wenz said.
