By Teresa Musick
Anderson resident
I was reading the paper on March 1, and saw the article about our property taxes getting back in sync in that we pay them in May and November.
This same article gave an e-mail address that we could use to get an estimate of our property taxes for this year. When I filled out the form I was amazed to find that the amount of tax mine came up to was the gross assessed value of my home figured at 1 percent. So the gross assessed value of my home as listed by Madison County is $102,400. The estimator said my taxes would be $1,024, hence 1 percent.
Here is my question: what good are our homestead credits, mortgage exemption, or disability credits if we are paying the 1 percent? You see, my adjustments totaled $8,0570, which left me with a new net assessed value of $21,830. So you would think my taxes would be figured on the $21,830 number. Which means a tax bill of $218.30 a year at 1 percent?
Guess what, they were figured on the $21,830, but it still came out the 1 percent of my gross value, because they just increased the tax rate.
Now why do we have the adjustments if we are going to pay the 1 percent?
I did figure my taxes on the gross assessed value at the new tax rates without the adjustments and they would have been $2,604. So, yes, I got a break on property taxes, but it still came out to 1 percent of gross assessed value without even considering any adjustments.
Why are we having all the adjustments when they don’t mean anything anymore? Just use the 1 percent and be done with it. We could cut out jobs and save money in Madison County because we would not need all the extra fancy figuring going on.
The other problem I am having is the gross assessed value keeps going up, when we all know the gross assessed values of our homes have done nothing but go down in Madison County.
Try to sell your home today at the gross assessed value. It probably will not happen.
