Bill Hullander	- Download MP3-

Hamilton County commissioners decided Thursday they need a little more time to decide what to do, if anything, to provide some property-tax relief for senior citizens.

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch,” said Commissioner Curtis Adams, chairman of a committee looking into how, or if, to implement a property-tax freeze for seniors over 65.

Mr. Adams scheduled another meeting in about two weeks.

Commissioners have been wrangling with the idea of scrapping the tax freeze plan and instead providing funds to match a state tax-rebate program. Commission Chairman Bill Hullander, who suggested the idea, argued that matching the state plan would bring more of a benefit to seniors.

Commissioner Richard Casavant said he doesn’t want to do either because they’ll both shift the tax burden to younger taxpayers and put the county in the business of redistributing income.

But County Mayor Claude Ramsey said matching the relief program won’t cause “as great a shift.”

In a letter, Pam Duffy, president of the Chattanooga Association of Realtors, urged commissioners to hold off on taking action.

“As it stands, too many questions and unknowns loom over the tax freeze debate,” she wrote.

The Tennessee General Assembly gave final approval last year to a constitutional amendment giving local governments the option to freeze property taxes for seniors at their current levels. In 2006, almost 85 percent of Hamilton County voters approved the amendment.

In Hamilton County, seniors over 65 who make $32,890 or less in 2008 would be eligible for the freeze. Seniors would see a benefit from the freeze if their taxes would otherwise increase — after a tax-rate increase or if their property value goes up after a reappraisal.

With the state tax-relief program, seniors would see savings prior to any rate increase, Mr. Hullander argued.

But the relief program includes fewer people, Commissioner Fred Skillern noted. To be eligible for it, seniors must make $24,790 or less per year, according to the comptroller’s office.

“You’ll always have a gap,” Mr. Skillern said.

County Trustee Carl Levi guessed that about 9,000 people might fall into that gap.

But increased administrative costs and headaches, one of the biggest problems commissioners have considered with the tax freeze, would be less of a burden with a match to the state tax rebates, said Finance Administrator Louis Wright.

“Administratively, this will be nothing compared to the tax-freeze program,” he said. “This program is already in place. It’s already established.”

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