Confusion about tax exemption

On Jan. 28, the Rhome City Council passed ordinance 2021-2 that was supposed to give veterans an exemption on our city taxes. They had talked about it being a tax rate freeze as they had done for seniors. They wrote the ordinance up, and it was finally published in this paper April 13 and 16. The only thing the ordinance said (paraphrasing) is they wanted to give the disabled veterans and their surviving spouse an exemption. It did not say what or how much of an exemption.

In the council meeting, the attorney stated that it would not be automatic, and the disabled veteran would need to apply for the exemption at the tax office.

Imagine my surprise when the tax office informed me that there was not a tax code referenced in that ordinance for them to use. In order to apply an exemption, they needed a tax code to use. The only tax code that was referenced anywhere was 11.22. This is the same exemption that I have been receiving for the past couple of decades. I am sure that tax code was in place long before I started receiving it.

As I said, it was published April 13 and 16, four days after I had asked for a copy of what it cost to publish this in the paper. Coincidence?

What they did was spend taxpayers’ public funds for an attorney to write this up and to publish this in the paper giving us nothing more than what the state already gives us.

Sadly, this has really brought up two questions for me. Did they really not know what they were doing but spent tax payers’ money to do it? Did they do this at the start of election season to win back the goodwill of the veterans and their supporters after the Veterans Day event was moved to Boyd last November? I guess only time will tell.

Deborah BeCraft

Rhome