Minutes 05-03-2022 Business Meeting

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35 Commissioner Fowler clarified that the calculation was based on the entire bill. Nancy Freeman said the $830 cap was determined by finding half of the average county portion of 2021 tax bill of the applicants. She said they knew those were the people who would need assistance, so they were used as the range. Commissioner Richards thanked them for being responsive to community input, but she was confused as to what the goal is. She said that the original concerns were around the valuations themselves. She said the county tried to review the valuations and there was an appeal process. She said after those adjustments, there was a program to support people who needed tax assistance. She asked how many people went through appeal process before valuation adjustments were made. She asked about the total possible number of people who needed help. Nancy Freeman said she thought it was around 4,000 people. Commissioner Richards said using that number, there were potentially 4,000 people who might need help if their bill stayed the way it was. She asked about the number of people who appealed their property values, then also applied for assistance. Nancy Freeman said she did not know that number but she would get it for the Board. Commissioner Richards said once a program is started, it is difficult to stop it. She said the county is funding this program through ARPA, and those funds will not be around forever. She said her concern is that the county is starting something that it cannot support. She said perhaps the number was low because valuations were adjusted. She said Nancy Freeman had previously said they had learned lessons about valuations. Nancy Freeman said those lessons were specific to certain portions of the county and this program is for the entire county. Commissioner Richards said there are some things that are really strong, like reducing the years of ownership from 10 to 5. She said she wanted to understand the possible universe of people who need help and how to make it sustainable. Commissioner McKee said he knew it was it a pilot program, but he thought there would have been more interest. He noted the community events staff held to publicize the program. He asked about future outreach methods for the program. He said that outreach will be critical. He said that he is concerned that only 91 people applied. He said it may be related to an innate distrust of government programs. He said farmers are naturally suspicious of things that affect their land and he can imagine that homeowners would feel the same way. He asked staff how outreach methods might change. Corey Root said they wanted to get guidance from the Board in order to make a robust plan along with the Jackson Center, Justice United, and any other community groups. She said they leaned heavily on social media and press releases rather than in-person contact due to the pandemic. She said they received requests for in-person events on nights and weekends. She said it is a lot of information and they tried to pare it down just to what was needed. She said applicants had to provide income verification. She said it's not a quick process. Commissioner McKee asked about the flyer that was included in the agenda abstract. He said the headline caught his eye. He asked how it was used in outreach. Corey Root said they distributed fliers in communities and provided them to Northside neighborhood to put in their newsletter. She said they put the fliers in many county locations. Nancy Freeman said the flyer will included in their tax assistance package. Commissioner McKee said that was his next question, because everyone in the county gets a tax bill and he looks at every piece of paper included with the tax bill. Nancy Freeman said one question they had received from Justice United was regarding mortgages and people who don't actually pay their tax bill, it's paid by someone else. She said that they send a bill to the actual owner of the property, regardless if they have a mortgage, so