Trustee Bill Hullander said Friday that the County Commission visited the issue of a senior property tax freeze in 2007 and "decided that the issue would be revisited in the future if it became necessary to increase the property tax rate."
He noted that Hamilton County has not had a property tax increase since 2007.
The assessor of property’s race, pitting Marty Haynes versus Mark Siedlecki, has been focusing on the issue of a property tax freeze for elderly property owners in Hamilton County.
Mr. Hullander said, "In the event there is a property tax freeze program it would become the duty of the trustee to administer the program. While I have not been involved in the property tax freeze discussion, I don’t think the commission will entertain a tax increase as long as the county continues to grow."
Trustee Hullander said in 2007 the property tax rate was increased from 2.84940 to 3.1540. He said, "However, in 2009 after the required re-appraisal, the rate was reduced to 2.7652 and has remained the same for the past seven years. A homeowner’s house appraised at $100,000 in 2007 at the 3.1540 rate would pay $787.50 in property tax and the same house with the same appraisal in 2015 would pay $691.30.
"The number of parcels that have been added to county’s tax roll have increased over the past nine years. We have grown from 157,975 parcels in 2007 to 164,027 in 2015. Some of this growth is commercial property. An example would be Volkswagen and several spin-off companies.
"In dollars and cents, the 2007 levy was $221 million and the 2015 levy is $244 million - an increase of $23 million. The trustee’s office collects taxes for several municipalities. However, this data is representative of the county only."