Q: What
is the Adequate Facilities Tax (AFT)?
A: As proposed, the Rutherford County, TN Adequate
Facilities Tax is a ONE TIME tax on NEW residential and non-residential
development that will be assessed on square footage. This tax
is not a new tax because it will replace the current
Development Tax. It is more equitable because it is based
on square footage: a smaller dwelling will be assessed a smaller
tax than a large dwelling.
Q: Why
do SOME local legislators oppose the Adequate Facilities Tax
(AFT)?
A: Kent Coleman thinks this bill will hurt the lower
income people who want to buy a NEW home. He believes that
property tax increases are a more equitable way to raise revenue
and that all property tax payers should pay more for our growth.
(Listen to his comments before the TN State Legislature at BoroWatch.com) *see note below
What Rep. Coleman seems
not to consider to be equally important is the number of people
who will be negatively impacted by larger than normal increases
in the property tax. Fixed income elderly property owners who
have to pay more for insurance and more for medicine, farmers
who have huge acreage to pay taxes on even when there is a bad
year for their crop, and property owners who will be losing TennCare
benefits or who can simply not afford insurance are all at the
other end of the spectrum from the low income folks who want
to buy NEW homes.
If Rep. Coleman is concerned
about lower income people and home ownership, he needs to consider
the ones who may be forcing out of their homes or out
of farming due to increases in property tax to provide the additional
services and infrastructure required by the increase of NEW homes.
Could there be a connection between high property taxes on farms
and the desire by some for more land for development?
A: Donna
Rowland took somebody's pledge not to raise any taxes in order
to get elected. She did not conduct a survey of her constituents
before she did this.
She will not consider voting
for this bill without the county going to the ADDITIONAL EXPENSE
of a referendum. She does not seem to believe that our county
commission represents the wishes of the people, based on her
comment that this is a new tax and that it is "Taxation
Without Representation."
She does not hold community
meetings to determine the will of the people in her own district.
Why?
|
Basically, it seems that Kent Coleman feels
he knows better than the County Commission on how they should
pay for growth ... but doesn't ask the people; and Donna Rowland
doesn't want to allow the County Commission to follow the will
of the people and the recommendation of the Alternative Revenue
Task Force (whose work she considered SO important last year)
... but doesn't ask the people .
Who are they listening to?
|
If
you have a specific question regarding the AFT, send us an e-mail and we will do our best
to answer it.
