Madison Co. Budget Committee talks wheel tax, property tax increase

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — The Madison County Budget Committee met once again Wednesday trying desperately to find $6 million.

“The city tried to make this about school funding — it’s not about school funding,” County Mayor Jimmy Harris said. “It’s about the city needing money. Period. Cut and dry.”

The city and county finally reached an agreement over $12 million the city took back from the school system. Both parties agreed to split it evenly.

“I called the city mayor because if we were going to have some resolution to this, I felt very strongly it had to be prior to our adoption of a budget,” Mayor Harris said.

Now the county must find the money.

“I guess I would lean toward a combination of a wheel tax and a property tax,” Mayor Harris said.

Wednesday, the committee came up with five options.

“Moving about 11 pennies of the general fund — that would be about $2 million — and a wheel tax of $75,” Budget Committee Chairman Doug Stephenson said.

The second option is taking money from the general fund and raising property taxes 22 cents from the current $2.15 property tax. This would raise about $4.4 million.

The third involves moving money from the general fund and enacting a $30 wheel tax and a 14-cent property tax increase.

“We have some people who want to do a property tax and some who want to do a wheel tax and then some that want to do a combination,” Stephenson said.

The fourth option involves implementing only a $75 wheel tax.

Finally, the committee is considering only raising property taxes 30 cents.

If enacted, it would mean big changes targeting the pockets of everyone in the county.

“We’ve never done this,” Mayor Harris said. “We’ve never had a wheel tax, and we haven’t increased property tax since about 1993.”

We asked county leaders again about the relationship between the county and the city. The answer hasn’t changed.

“We are going to have a relationship,” Mayor Harris said. “There is no doubt that relationship is strained and no doubt it is going to be different than it has been in the past.”