Highlands to pay 46 percent of Macon County Property Tax in 2023
Highlands Mayor Pat Taylor gave the crowd at his most recent “Coffee with the Mayor” program an inside look at the town’s 2023-24 operating budget and offered his thoughts on the most recent Macon County property tax revaluation.
Taylor started by hitting the budget’s highlights, including the hiring of six new firefighters to provide 24/7 fire protection for the town.
“The additional firefighters began work on June 29 and they are getting up to speed quickly,” Taylor said. “We knew when we built the new fire station, that 24/7 fire coverage was the next logical step and we were able to make that happen in this budget cycle.”
Taylor also pointed to major improvements on the horizon at the town’s water treatment plant, road paving projects, and upgrades to heavily used equipment as budget priorities he was happy to see make the final $29,641,271 budget.
“If you noticed in the paper, the final budget number we passed in June was actually less than the number that was proposed in May,” Taylor said. “That’s because we got a couple of projects closed out that we were afraid were going to have to carry over into the new budget year. We still have more carryover money in the budget than we would like, but with the supply chain issues and manufacturing backlogs we’ve seen in the past 2-3 years it’s become unavoidable.”
Taylor noted that the town ordered a new bucket truck for the electric utility in the 2021-22 budget. That truck was expected to be delivered during the 2022-23 budget year, but has still not arrived.
“We’ve been told it will be here in December,” Taylor said. “Those trucks of course are not cheap, so that’s a six-figure piece of equipment that has carried over for two budget cycles at this point.”
Highlands overall budget increased from year prior, but Taylor reminded the crowd that the 2022 property revaluation meant the budget for the coming fiscal year is revenue neutral. Highlands’ property tax rate decreased from 15.24 cents per $100 of property value to 10.22 cents per $100 of property value.
“We are kind of having some issues with the county right now, in terms of being told that the county doesn’t have the money to fund things we need up here,” Taylor said. “But the final numbers for this revaluation are in, and Highlands is paying 46 percent of the property tax for the entire county. The property tax growth rate for Highlands during this revaluation cycle was 48 percent. It’s important for everyone to remember, and realize, we pay almost half the property tax for the county.”
Taylor used his own property as an example of how the revaluation effects homeowners whose property has gained value over time.
“Sally and I got our revaluation statement and it was more than double our previous value,” Taylor said. “I got some numbers together, and I filed an appeal. The county did reduce my assessed value upon appeal, but our increase was still above the 48 percent average, which means we are now paying more to the county and town than we were a year ago.”
During a revenue neutral budget process, Highlands homeowners whose property value increased less than 48 percent will pay less in taxes than year prior, while homeowners whose property value increased more than 48 percent will pay more than year prior, Taylor explained.
He added that some districts in Macon County did not keep pace with booming values during the 2022 revaluation.
“Highlands Township and the Town of Highlands’ values going up will lead to an additional $1.3 million being collected in property tax in the next fiscal year by the county,” Taylor said. “Our friends in Franklin, they will actually be paying $300,000 less as a district in property tax because their overall values didn’t increase as much as the average… When you look at property tax collection in Macon County, Highlands and the surrounding township are absolutely the economic engine of the county.”
Taylor’s most recent “Coffee with the Mayor” program was sponsored by Mountaintop Rotary Club. The monthly forums are held the final Friday of each month from April through October and are free and open to the public.