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Tennessee Lawmakers Cut Property Tax Relief for Disabled Veterans

Brent Moore
/
Flickr (Creative Commons)

Disabled veterans in Tennessee will see cuts to some of their tax benefits next as state lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill cutting property tax relief.

The bill reduces the max property value from the original $175,000 to $100,000. Rep. Joe Pitts of Montgomery County said it also introduces an income cap.

“It would cause there to be an income cap or limit on disabled veterans of $60,000 and that’s unprecedented, that’s new,” he said. “And that’s part of what gave me the heartburn about the legislation.”

Pitts was one of 19 state representatives against the measure. He said the 70 legislators for the bill broke a promise to veterans in Tennessee.

“We had put a program in place. It was working, working very well, granted it was growing in terms of the state’s financial liability,” he said. “And then suddenly there were some changes some folks wanted to make and I feel like it was unfair and it was hastily done.”

Current Disabled veterans with income more than $60,000 will be grandfathered in. The measure also made smaller changes for low-income senior citizens and the disabled.

It awaits Governor Bill Haslam’s signature.