Property tax potentially increasing in Jackson; Mayor explains
JACKSON, Tenn. — Many people have been voicing their opinions after the Mayor of Jackson proposed an idea regarding the next fiscal year’s budget.
On Sunday, Mayor Scott Conger released a statement on Facebook with a proposal of how to balance the city’s budget for the next fiscal year. Currently, it is at a $3.75 million deficit. In this proposal, he is suggesting raising taxes, as well as raising the city sticker fee.
This was met with a lot of backlash. However, we wanted to speak with Mayor Conger about why he made this proposal in the first place.
“We got at a stalemate of I don’t think anyone really wanted to have the hard discussion,” Mayor Conger said. “And so I told the Council that I would make the proposal. I ran for this seat for a reason, to make the tough decisions. That was kind of what we ended up with.”
The City has different options in order to erase this deficit. They could raise taxes, like the Mayor suggests. They could take the money from their fund balance, or their savings account, which Mayor Conger says only solves the problem for one year. Or they could eliminate some of their expenses, which the Mayor says they have already been working on this year.
“Then two years ago when we had the certified rate — I don’t know how much you know about certified rates — but that means that the City cannot take in more than it did the prior year,” Conger said. “The prior year at a $1.9661, we brought the certified rate down to $1.6114. Which, through the formula the state provided, actually reduced the revenue we get from property taxes by $400,000.”
Whatever decision is made and whatever option is used to eliminate this deficit in the next fiscal year’s budget, it is not something the Mayor can do alone. There are nine City Council members. They’re going to have to vote in a council meeting to decide on how they will eliminate this problem.
“They could do several things,” Conger said. “It is really up to what they want to do. They can make motions to change some items in the budget. To remove some items, to add some items. It seems like every time we have met, nothing is ever removed. We always add some things.”
The Council will meet for an agenda review on Thursday at 4 p.m. They will then meet Tuesday, June 3 at 9 a.m. for the next City Council meeting.
For more local news, click here.
