‘Simply not true' Burgess fires back at mayor's tax cut claim
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County's Assessor of Property Melvin Burgess responded to Mayor Lee Harris on Thursday, a day after the mayor proposed a budget he said would cut the county property tax rate by 66 cents.
Burgess said the tax rate is set to go down, but it's because of state law and the work he and his staff did — not because of Harris.
'Any statements made by Mayor Lee Harris claiming he or his administration are responsible for any tax decrease are simply not true,' Burgess wrote in an open letter released to media.
Mayor proposes tax cut in new Shelby County budget
Harris presented his $1.7 billion budget to county commissioners on Wednesday, with a proposed new property tax rate of $2.73 per $100 of assessed value, down from from $3.39, a 20% decrease.
If approved, Harris says the new rate would be the lowest in Shelby County in 30 years.
But Burgess says $2.73 is the amount the county would likely be legally required to set anyway, and it doesn't amount to a tax cut.
Under Tennessee's Truth in Taxation Act, the county is already required by state law to roll back the property tax rate in a reassessment year, to account for rising property values that could otherwise result in a major financial windfall for local governments.
The county's certified tax rate is approved by the property assessor in coordination with state, and ratified by the county commission, Burgess said.
'The reason your taxes went down is not because of anything the Mayor Harris did,' Burgess wrote. 'Shelby County's property tax rate will decrease by 20%, from $3.39 to $2.73, because of the growth my staff and I captured in Shelby County. My office has worked diligently to train, deploy, and equip our appraisal professionals and support staff to capture this growth so that the citizens we serve can benefit from a lower tax rate.'
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