390 Washington County, Tenn. homeowners successfully appeal property appraisal

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — Nearly 400 Washington County homeowners will pay less in property tax after successful hearings to lower their taxable home values.

The County Board of Equalization (CBOE) heard requests from more than 1,000 property owners after last year’s reappraisal resulted in an average residential value increase of 68% compared to the 2019 appraised values. That, and a tax increase levied by Washington County’s commission, put property taxes top of mind for a lot of people this year.

“When you’re starting to mess with someone’s pocketbook, they get emotional,” CBOE Chairwoman Jennifer Hyder told News Channel 11. She’d sat through 51 days of hearings, averaging almost 20 a day.

“Once we we talked about the process, and if they gave us the evidence and we were able to help them or change it based on that information, they were happy with that,” Hyder said.

CBOE members granted value reductions in 57% of cases, with the average decrease amounting to nearly 18% of the value that had been determined by the Washington County Property Assessor’s Office. A total of 390 residential owners and 184 commercial property owners saw reductions.

The average successful homeowner will see their tax bill slashed by hundreds of dollars as a result. The 184 successful commercial property owners will see their county property tax bills alone reduced by an average of more than $2,000.

Hyder said the CBOE used a data-driven process. If property owners came into the 15-minute meetings saying “it’s just too high,” but no broker’s opinion, recent sales nearby, photos showing structural data or some other data, their arguments didn’t hold much water.

“That took out the bias, it took out the unfairness,” Hyder said.

Washington County Property Assessor Robbie McGuire said this year’s CBOE took the use of data and professionalism to a new level.

“They actually gave us the numbers of what (Johnson City) changed and what the county changed and Jonesborough,” McGuire said. “They broke it down on how many appointments that they had and how many no shows, how many people brought appraisals, how many people didn’t, and so it really helps us with the process of how accurate we are.”

Impactful numbers for owners, negligible impact to local governments

The impact on Washington County, Johnson City and Jonesborough revenues will be minimal. The changes reduce the overall taxable property value countywide by 1.65%, but new growth within the county since that reappraisal was done has made up for most of the decrease.

“We actually did not lose the amount of value that you would think,” McGuire said.

In the county, the change will reduce tax revenues owed by about $535,000. McGuire said new growth in the past nine months, since the reappraisal ended, has added enough to the tax rolls to decrease that gap to only about $234,000. That’s a drop in the bucket of the overall expected Washington County property tax revenue of $94 million.

“That says the process was somewhat fair,” Hyder said of the initial reappraisal conducted by McGuire’s office. “We did see some changes and we did see some discrepancies, and that’s what the purpose of the board is to find those discrepancies, to fix those. So it is fair. So that tells us the process works.”

For the average homeowner who successfully contested their appraisal, though, the difference is significant.

The 390 homeowners seeing reductions had an average appraised home value of $459,967. As a whole, that average was lowered to $369,432 — almost 20%.

That means the average successful appeal knocked $387 off the property tax bill of a county resident. That average would be $693 for someone who lived in Johnson City, with city property tax dropping by $306. The decrease for a Jonesborough resident would be $220, or $607 for both city and county taxes.

The 184 commercial property owners who successfully appealed had an average decrease of $305,199. That equates to an average county property tax decrease of $2,088, plus another $1,653 if that average property was also in Johnson City. Three quarters of the commercial properties affected were in Johnson City.

McGuire said County Trustee Rick Storey should be able to send tax bills out by mid-September or so because his office wrapped up its work early.

The CBOE will meet annually until the next scheduled reappraisal in 2029, and McGuire said property owners can contest their values during any of those years.

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