Just how much tax dollars is Bradley County giving away? Make no mistake, they are giving tax dollars away. Some will say Bradley County and any municipality that participates in PILOT agreements really aren’t giving away anything, they just aren’t collecting what would normally be due if not for a PILOT agreement. Well if I go to the courthouse tomorrow and pay my property taxes and they hand the money right back to me and say you don’t have to pay this year that is equivalent to giving away tax dollars and it is unequal treatment under the law, nobody would stand for it.
The Industrial Development Board of Bradley County currently has 15 properties valued at $377,858,596 on the records. Commercial real property is assessed at 40 percent at a tax rate of $1.8721 with an additional $.4212 fire tax in the fringe area. So any companies inside the fringe would be paying a total tax of $2.2933 per $100 and a little less outside the fringe area. So, let’s do the math; $377,858,596*.40= $151,143,438 assessed value. Let’s divide that by 100 to get $1,511,434. Now multiply that by $2.2933 to get $3,466,172 tax dollars. Also remember the numbers above from the records do not reflect the actual value since Wacker itself is being reported at over a $2 billion project and the Whirlpool project was valued at over $200 million and the records don’t come close to those numbers.
You may be thinking this doesn’t affect you but it does because public services are still being provided to those companies that the rest of the taxpayers have to make up.
Bradley County’s website says the following concerning the calculation of the certified tax rate: “These calculations are based on the previous year’s approved budget for each jurisdiction and the current Total Assessment of the jurisdiction for Real and Personal Property. This also includes the estimated value of properties assessed by the Office of State Assessed Properties, and any Industrial Development Board agreements in effect.“
As you can see the PILOT agreements must be considered when figuring the tax rate. If equal treatment of the law applied companies in PILOT agreements would be paying the full amount owed and the tax rate would be lower for us all. So anytime your elected officials hand out a PILOT agreement they are in effect raising your property taxes, it is a hidden tax on the rest of the taxpayers. How many of you would vote for a property tax increase?
Mike Lynn