Oak Ridge Today

Guest column: Do our competitors ‘hammer us’ on property tax rates?

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Myron Iwanski

Myron Iwanski

I agree with Martin McBride that Oak Ridge is a great place to live. However, I do not agree with his statement in recent columns that high property taxes are the reason Anderson County’s and Oak Ridge’s populations are not growing as fast as those in some area counties.

The following information from county and city audit reports and websites, the University of Tennessee County Technical Advisory Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website help make my point. [Read more…]

United Way will announce 2012 campaign results in annual meeting Thursday

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It’s been a challenging year, and the United Way of Anderson County is scaling back its annual meeting this year and reducing expenses.

The campaign results from 2012 will be announced at an annual meeting at 7:30 a.m. Thursday at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, a UWAC member agency. The meeting is open to the public with advance reservation. It will include a brief networking and continental breakfast, followed by the annual business meeting and campaign recognition. [Read more…]

Guest column: It’s not the property tax rate

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There is a persistent plaint that workers at Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory don’t live in Oak Ridge because the property tax rate is so high. Farragut is pointed to as having no city tax at all and therefore highly attractive. Farragut, no less than Oak Ridge, is indeed an attractive area in which to live. It is not because of the property tax rate.

Let’s look at a few of the numbers related to the Oak Ridge city tax rate of $2.39. That rate is applied per $100 of value on 25 percent of the assessed value of residential property. In other words, if one’s home has been appraised at $150,000, the epitome of an “affordable” home, the city property tax is $2.39 per hundred dollars on $37,500, or $896.25. That means that this homeowner is paying just at $75 per month for city services.

Among the services covered by this $75 are police, fire fighters, parks and recreational services, library, street lights, sidewalks, code oversight, street maintenance, and the city’s contribution to the schools. That is $75 per household, not for each person. [Read more…]

Guest column: Changing the economic development game in Oak Ridge

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There’s no nice way to spin it: The results of our city’s bad decisions for the past decade are catching up with us.

In addition to having high debt and property taxes, our sales tax revenues continue to decline, we are exporting more than $727 million per year in U.S. Department of Energy payroll (1), and we have a comparatively stagnant population growth. Even with all the new restaurants opening, these projects won’t fully replace the revenue we’ve lost from the countless businesses that have closed up shop or left town for greener pastures.

Continuing down this path is not an option. Thankfully, our city manager understands this and wants to strategize a more competitive position for Oak Ridge. He is proposing that we change our approach to economic development (2) by finding other uses for the $1-2 million we’ve been spending annually on nearly 20 different external organizations like the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

[Read more…]