MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WGNS News) - Rutherford County Assessor of Property Rob Mitchell says recent reports about Tennessee property taxes may not tell the whole story because rising property values do not automatically mean taxes rise by the same amount. Mitchell points out that Tennessee requires a revenue-neutral certified tax rate after a countywide reappraisal, which lowers the tax rate when property values increase so local governments do not automatically receive a large tax windfall. His analysis shows locally collected property taxes statewide rose about 23.7% from 2021 to 2025, while assessed property values increased by about 56%. After accounting for inflation, Mitchell says the real increase in property tax collections was only about 4.6%, and on a per-person basis the amount was essentially unchanged. His main argument is that Tennessee’s lack of a statewide cap on property tax increases should not be viewed by itself, because the state’s certified tax rate system also provides an important form of taxpayer protection.

MORE DETAILS - Rutherford County Assessor of Property Rob Mitchell is challenging the way recent reports have characterized Tennessee property tax growth, arguing that sharply rising property values should not be confused with equally sharp increases in the amount of property tax actually collected.

Mitchell’s concern centers on recent coverage of a Beacon Center of Tennessee report addressing the state’s lack of a statutory cap on property tax increases, along with a Wall Street Journal analysis examining property tax bills across the country. Mitchell is not disputing the underlying point that Tennessee does not have a statewide cap. Instead, he contends that Tennessee has another taxpayer protection that needs to be considered when comparing the state with others: the certified tax rate process that is designed to prevent a countywide reappraisal from automatically producing a tax windfall for local government.

The distinction Mitchell is drawing is between property values, tax rates and the actual dollars collected.

In an email to The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Aug. 17, Mitchell asked specifically what information had been used in its analysis. “I am very interested on what the data was you used. Was it tax rate increases or was it value increases?” Mitchell wrote in an email to Wall Street Journal reporter Sanai Rashid.

Wall Street Journal reporter Will Parker later responded to Mitchell, explaining, “We used data from a property data firm called Attom to track the increase in the average home property tax bill by state. Separately, we also mapped the states by effective tax rate.”

That response is significant because Mitchell’s analysis takes a different approach. Rather than looking only at changes in home values, an average homeowner’s bill or a tax-rate comparison, he calculated an estimate of the total locally collected property tax across Tennessee by combining assessed values with the actual tax rates imposed by individual taxing jurisdictions.

According to the analysis Mitchell supplied to WGNS and other news organizations, locally collected property taxes in Tennessee, excluding public utility property, totaled approximately $7.109 billion in 2021. By 2025, that figure had increased to approximately $8.790 billion. That represents an increase of about $1.681 billion, or 23.65%, over the four-year period.

Mitchell contrasts that 23.65% increase in estimated tax collections with an approximately 56% increase in assessed property values over the same general period. His point is that a large increase in assessed property values does not translate dollar-for-dollar into an equally large increase in property taxes because Tennessee law requires tax rates to be recalculated following a countywide reappraisal.

In Rutherford County, Mitchell points to the county’s previous reappraisal as an example. The analysis shows the tax rate preceding the certified-rate adjustment at $2.2194 per $100 of assessed value, followed by a certified tax rate of $1.6162 per $100. In other words, as property assessments rose, the rate was reduced as part of the revenue-neutral reappraisal process.

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Tax Aggregate Reports help explain why the distinction matters. Property taxes are imposed on a property’s assessed value, with local governing bodies setting tax rates that are generally expressed as an amount per $100 of assessed value. The amount owed is determined by applying the appropriate tax rate to that assessed value. The Comptroller also distinguishes an “effective tax rate,” which measures taxes as a percentage of appraised value.

Mitchell’s argument, therefore, is not that Tennessee property taxes have failed to increase. His own figures show they have. Rather, he argues that the increase has been considerably smaller than the growth in property assessments and that comparisons based primarily on rising valuations or the absence of a statutory tax cap can leave out an important piece of Tennessee’s tax structure.

“Tennessee’s system has no statewide cap, which is the focus of the Beacon Center’s policy concern, but it does have a statewide revenue-neutrality protection that many states lack,” Mitchell stated in the information distributed Monday.

Mitchell also adjusted the statewide figures for inflation and population growth. His analysis uses an approximately 18.18% increase in inflation between 2021 and 2025. After that adjustment, the estimated $7.109 billion collected in 2021 would equal about $8.402 billion in 2025 dollars. Compared with the estimated $8.790 billion collected in 2025, Mitchell calculates inflation-adjusted growth of approximately $389 million, or 4.63%.

The per-capita calculation produces an even narrower difference. Mitchell’s analysis places nominal locally collected property taxes at approximately $1,019 per person in 2021 and approximately $1,202 per person in 2025. However, when the 2021 figure is converted into 2025 dollars, it becomes approximately $1,204 per person. On that inflation-adjusted basis, the analysis shows a decline of about 0.23% per person, effectively leaving the statewide burden flat by that measure.

Mitchell further argues that much of the additional revenue collected statewide can be attributed to growth in the tax base - including new construction and improvements - rather than existing properties simply becoming more valuable through reappraisal. His release notes that new construction and improvements are treated differently in the certified-rate calculation, allowing local tax collections to grow as communities themselves grow.

That point is particularly relevant in rapidly growing counties such as Rutherford County. A jurisdiction can collect more total property tax revenue even with a lower tax rate because new houses, commercial buildings, industrial development and other improvements continually add taxable property to the overall assessment base.

The 2025 Tennessee Tax Aggregate Report, prepared by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Division of Property Assessments, shows statewide local assessments totaling more than $342.3 billion, before centrally assessed public utility property is added. The report also makes clear that tax rates are established by county and municipal governing bodies and that assessed values and tax rates are separate components in determining a property owner’s final tax obligation.

So, what is Mitchell ultimately trying to say? His argument can be boiled down to this: Tennessee may lack a statutory ceiling on property tax increases, but that does not mean rising appraisals automatically produce an equivalent increase in property taxes. The certified tax rate is intended to reset the rate following reappraisal so that the revaluation itself remains revenue neutral. Governments can subsequently adopt higher rates through the appropriate process, and revenues can increase as the tax base grows, but Mitchell argues those factors should be separated from the increase in market values when evaluating Tennessee’s property tax burden.

The disagreement is therefore less about whether Tennessee property taxes can increase - they clearly can - and more about which measurement provides the most meaningful comparison. The Beacon Center’s concern focuses on the absence of a statewide cap, while the Wall Street Journal told Mitchell its analysis examined average home property tax bills and effective tax rates. Mitchell, meanwhile, is emphasizing total taxes actually collected, inflation, population growth and Tennessee’s revenue-neutral certified-rate requirement.

• 2021 State Comptroller "Tax Aggregate Report of Tennessee"
• 2025 State Comptroller "Tax Aggregate Report of Tennessee"