Reassessment Appeals

Information you need to know about the Reassessment

and how to appeal

 

May Commission Meeting 2025

 I've been attending the Sullivan County Commission meetings since January and I'm beginning to get a feel for how they are run. I was pleasantly surprised in January that the meetings were mostly businesslike: I had really only seen clown-show clips like Joe Carr and Joe McMurray slapping the table about Juneteenth being a "woke" holiday.

The place was packed again this month. They were there to honor a retiring Constable, and the winners of the Sullivan County School's Earth Day poster contest. There were three public comments: one against allowing bitcoin in the county, and the other two about the property reassessment. I was disturbed that these citizens just did not understand the process or the law. I appreciate why the Commission only listens to their comments and doesn't attempt to educate them, but I was struck that the Commission has as much need to educate Sullivan County citizens as Democrats do.

 

Most of the resolutions were included in the Consent Agenda, which means they were all voted on together and needed unanimous approval of all Commissioners present. They involved selling two county-owned delinquent tax properties, a new traffic light installed by the state but maintained by the county, to accept funds to repair the Nellie Pratt Swinging Bridge, to establish the Keep Sullivan County Beautiful program in affiliation with Keep Tennessee Beautiful, an easement for Kingsport Power, to create a process to approve grant proposals being submitted by county departments, to move some money around for the Highway Dept while waiting for state reimbursement (if I understand that one correctly), to move some other money around for the Sheriff's Dept that is reimbursable from the state, and to appropriate some Opioid Settlement money to the Sheriff's Dept for their Corrections Facility - Mental Health Division. This all passed unanimously (seven Commissioners were absent).

 

Item 1 was needed to increase funding to the Planning and Codes Department to pay engineers to sign off on plans. This is a liability issue. This year, they've seen a boost in the volume they're managing, which means they've already tapped their budgeted funds. It was mentioned in the discussion that fees had been increased and that said increase should cover the $12,000 appropriation (but there's nothing in the resolution about that). This passed unanimously.

 

Item 10 was brought by Carr and Vanover and was to adopt the property tax freeze program as provided for in Tennessee law for property owners 65+ making less than $45K/yr. When this was brought up, Carr abruptly moved to withdraw the item. I find this extremely concerning IF I'm understanding. I believe this program has been in effect and it would greatly impact those who have previously been able to take advantage of it. It might be a different program than the tax relief program, however.

 

Items 13, 14, and 15 were not in the agenda packet. All three were moved to first reading, so they will come up again next month.

 

The June Commission meeting was moved to June 26, and the August meeting to August 18 (a Monday).

 

See ya next month!

April Commission Meeting 2025

(a report from April)

I've been attending the Sullivan County Commission meetings for several months. There was an "item" defeated last night that the Commissioner sponsoring it (Cheryl Harvey) thought would mean that the county would not be giving ANY money to ANY non-profits for the year. So I put this in here mostly to give anyone involved with not-for-profits a heads up.

Her proposal, if I am reading it correctly, was to put $200k in the budget to be granted through a committee to not-for-profits in the coming budget year. It read to me as a cap, as a "we won't be giving more than that", and in at least one of her sales pitches for it, she noted how much less that was than the county had granted in some previous year. A close vote defeated this item and frankly I'm not sure what the pros and cons even were. I bring it here now because, according to Ms. Harvey, this defeat means that the county will not be granting ANY money to ANY not-for-profit in the next budget year.

 

I can't imagine that that is what it means -- an item being defeated would seem to mean that whatever the previous procedure was would still be in place. But she was adamant and was quite upset.

 

I apologize that I haven't quite found the "voice" with which to write these meetings up. I had the idea of being "factual", "journalistic", but the thing I am most struck by is how STUPID so many of these people are. Ms. Harvey is not stupid, but her item was not well written, was not clear, did not cover all the bases, and she was not prepared to answer pertinent questions about it. Likewise, there has been a citizen (Victoria Hunt) at several meetings who has spoken against ANY non-profit getting ANY money from the county, and whatever it is she is saying has not made one lick of sense. There is one commissioner, Jessica Means, who is a full-on conspiracy theorist about everything, including that LED lights are causing brain damage, so that she attempted to defeat the schools replacing fluorescents with LEDs, although doing so will save $70K/year. I have yet to hear her speak a complete sentence. At least Joe Carr doesn't say anything.

 

I won't skip the main bone of contention in last night's meeting: the county property reassessment. There is a lot of "heartburn" about how much assessment went up. A few points. Reassessment is by law a revenue-neutral event, so the rate WILL go down. The "ratio" changed and I don't know what that means but evidently it will be affecting tax relief for the elderly. The assessor was VERY reluctant to release this figure but pushed by Commissioners did say that the percentage of increase across all types of property (residential, commercial, etc.) was 64%. They are having hearings and adjusting assessments daily: look up what comparable parcels near yours sold for, bring evidence, and make your argument. From now on, reassessments will be done every two years instead of every four years.

The Purpose of the Pamphlet

 The purpose of this blog is to document public government meetings in Sullivan County in East by-gawd Tennessee. I am starting with the Sullivan County Commission with hopes that others will cover other meetings, including school boards and city councils.

 I chose the name Pamphlet because Thomas Paine is a hero, and we need what is happening in plainly laid out in the hopes that Common Sense will prevail.