MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — A multi-year state review of property assessments in Rutherford County has officially concluded, with the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office confirming that the county’s Assessor of Property Office has completed all required corrective steps and is now in compliance with state law.
In a letter dated March 5, 2026, Bryan L. Kinsey, Director of the Division of Property Assessments within the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s Office, informed Rutherford County Assessor of Property Rob Mitchell that the state-monitored corrective process tied to tax years 2024 and 2025 has been successfully completed. The review was originally initiated after a March 2025 notice from the State Board of Equalization directed the Division to ensure the county’s assessment practices complied with Tennessee law.
Kinsey wrote that after reviewing samples of corrections and change orders submitted by the Rutherford County Assessor’s Office, the Division determined that the necessary steps had been completed. The corrective process ultimately resulted in adjustments to more than 6,000 property parcels and approximately $121 million in “absolute value” changes to assessments, producing a net increase of roughly $58 million in assessed property values for the 2024 and 2025 tax years.
Despite the large dollar figures cited during the review, local officials say the numbers must be viewed within the context of Rutherford County’s rapidly expanding property base. The county currently manages approximately 135,821 real-estate parcels with a combined assessed value approaching $19 billion. The total market value of property across the county is estimated to be about $74.5 billion.
According to data provided by the Assessor’s Office, the corrective review ultimately identified about $1.08 million in additional tax revenue. Officials say the majority of that amount — roughly $847,000, or about 78 percent — was tied to a state-mandated policy change rather than local valuation errors. That change involved reclassifying single-family rental properties from a 25 percent residential assessment rate to a 40 percent commercial rate, a shift ordered at the state level. Some critics have argued that classification change may be unconstitutional.
The remaining $241,194 — about 22 percent of the total — was tied to local corrections involving relatively minor issues such as measurement discrepancies, construction completion timing, or small data errors within the system. When measured against the county’s nearly $19 billion tax base, that variance equates to approximately 0.06 percent.
Officials say the review team examined more than 6,000 parcels during the corrective process, and the average local correction equated to roughly $40 per parcel across two tax years. Local leaders point to that figure as evidence that the county’s mass appraisal system was already operating with a high degree of statistical accuracy before the state intervention began.
The Comptroller’s office also noted that while the mandated corrective steps have been completed, the Assessor’s Office must maintain improved procedures and internal controls to remain in compliance with state law. Kinsey encouraged continued training for staff and said the Division remains available to provide technical assistance if needed.
State officials further emphasized that Rutherford County must continue to notify the Division if any additional changes are made to property assessments that were reviewed during the corrective process, and that the internal controls established during the review should remain in place to ensure ongoing accuracy.
Local officials say the final results show that Rutherford County’s valuation system was not fundamentally flawed, but rather underwent a detailed statewide compliance review that addressed relatively small adjustments and implemented a policy change affecting rental property classifications.
