ASHEVILLE – Following recent tax increases by city and county governments, local homeowners will see an average tax increase of $ 350 in July.
But some homeowners on certain income levels can get that money back.
The combined tax increases come after a unanimous budget vote by the Buncombe Board of Commissioners on June 15 and a 6-1 vote in the city council to approve the Asheville budget on June 22. The increase for the fiscal year beginning July 1 was less than originally proposed and went to funding programs such as city worker increases and county education programs.
The tax rate changes amount to increases of around 4 cents. Applied to a home with an average price of $ 291,000, this gives a tax increase of $ 350.
But these changes come at an odd time – after all landowners have been assigned new values for land and buildings by the government. This means that changes in the tax rate will affect different property owners differently.
To ease the pain in an area that is the most expensive place in the state but wages are well below the national average, city and county leaders are planning a way to return these tax increases to lower-income homeowners.
More:Cost of Living in Asheville: Gap between prices and income could widen despite rising wages
According to state law, all property owners must be billed with the same tax rate and no consideration can be given to income, property value, main and second home or residential or commercial property.
To get around this, local officials have suggested granting grants equal to the increase to homeowners earning less than 80% of the region’s median income. That’s currently $ 42,100 a year for a single person or $ 60,100 for a family of four.
In the county budget, commissioners added $ 300,000 for the program.
For Asheville, the budget includes “$ 150,000 to contribute to the city’s participation
Buncombe County’s new homeowner grant program, designed to help mitigate the impact of property tax increases on low-income homeowners, “city finance director Tony McDowell said in a report to the council.
Kim Roney, the only council member to vote against the budget, said the amount should be higher and that calculations by some volunteers showed “it should be closer to $ 1 million”.
One of those local volunteers was Nina Tovish from Shiloh, who said the program, which encourages people to apply for grants, should automatically send out checks instead.
“You save staff time and achieve more than people who need this help without having to spend money on communication and administration of the process,” Tovish told council members after the vote.
Another problem that is adding to the burden on poorer homeowners is the county appraisal process, Roney said. She cited work by Joe Minicozzi, a land use planner who specializes in property tax analysis and community design.
Minicozzi spoke briefly to council members about his analysis, which showed that the on-site valuation process, widespread across the country, caused property values to rise faster in poorer neighborhoods, many of which are traditionally African American, than in other neighborhoods. These government estimates are multiplied by the tax rate to calculate the tax bills.
“You can see that Burton Street is growing 38% while Brucemont, my former neighborhood, is growing 17%,” said Minicozzi.
Councilor Sage Turner said she wanted the city council to have a full presentation of the findings from Minicozzi.
“The City of Asheville doesn’t issue property tax assessments, but that doesn’t mean we’re not responsible for observing and understanding what is happening,” Turner said.
Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years covering politics, government and other news. He has written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police violence. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.