JAMES WOOD

Staff Writer

The final Joint Senior Tax Freeze Study Committee between Bedford County and the City of Shelbyville was held on April 14 at the Bedford County Historic Courthouse.

More discussion was had on benefiting residents in the county with the creation of a potential property tax freeze program that would apply to seniors aged 65 or older.

County Mayor Chad Graham, Shelbyville Mayor Randy Carroll, former Property Assessor Ronda Clanton, Commissioners Eric Maddox and Anita Epperson and City Councilmembers Josh Blevins and Henry Feldhaus were present for the meeting. County Trustee Tonya Davis was unable to attend.

According to state regulations, while the minimum income limit is $42,710, the maximum income limit to apply for the property tax freeze would be $61,920 in the 2025 application year.

Recently retired Property Assessor Ronda Clanton offered perspective from her former office about the potential workload that the plan may put on the county government if the maximum local option income limit is adopted, similar to some other local governments across the state.

“That’s gonna change the game a little bit,” said Clanton.

Due to the Property Assessor’s responsibility to inspect properties that have been added to, the employees of the office would be required to take on a larger workload.

“They’ll visit a new construction at least three times,” continued Clanton. “If we’ve got around 500 new homes, that’s 1,500 visits added on top of it.”

County Mayor Chad Graham argued in favor of waiting until after the elections to determine the details of the plan, highlighting the number of outgoing elected officials during this cycle, including himself.

“It would be prudent to allow the new administration and commission to be the one to decide that for the county side,” said Graham.

Shelbyville City Councilmember Josh Blevins contested this notion, debating that waiting to approve the plan would cause unnecessary delay and pressure on the new County Commissioners and City Councilmembers when they assume office.

“If we don’t do it now as a point in time, it really needs to wait until next spring at the earliest to be a serious discussion, because you don’t want to slide it in on them,” said Blevins.

He also emphasized the potential risk of adding an extra burden on the local government by approving the plan midway through the county budgeting process.

“I wouldn’t want to drop something on an office midway through their budget year that requires them to do more work.”

Graham countered this by highlighting that the effects of the tax freeze would be negligible in the budgeting process in its initial implementation as opposed to a tax relief program.

“They’ll have zero impact when it’s first implemented anyway unless you raise property tax,” continued Graham. “We’re not planning on raising property tax.”

Debate on the benefits between a tax relief versus tax freeze program was also had. Both the county and city offer programs for seniors and disabled veterans and ideas were proposed for possibly expanding these programs.

After further discussion, a motion was made by Blevins to send the tax freeze plan to the Rules and Legislative Committee and City Council without a recommendation, which passed unanimously.