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  • growth and development
  • BRAC
  • infrastructure expansion

Maintaining Fiscal Discipline

County Real Property Tax Facts

Hardin County Government receives less than 15 cents of every dollar you pay in property tax. Almost 60 cents of each dollar goes to the local schools while the state receives about 22 cents.

The county's 15 cents of each property tax dollar will produce approximately $5.1 million; 18% of the county's $28.1 million Fiscal Year 2010/2011 operating budget.

Property taxes are assessed based upon each $100 of assigned valuation. The Property Valuation Administrator, a state office under the purview of the State Finance Cabinet, determines the value of your property.

Hardin County Fiscal Court sets the county property tax rates. County Government does NOT set the school property tax rates. County Government does NOT determine property valuations.

Government should NOT place an unfair share of its revenue needs on the backs of property owners. Each year the value of your property increases due to inflation thereby increasing the base upon which your property tax rate is applied.

Maintaining stable tax rates allows tax revenues to increase to keep pace with inflation. Increasing tax rates would produce more government revenue from property owners (through increased taxes) in amounts outpacing the rate of inflation. While I believe it is fair and necessary for government to receive increases in revenue to keep pace with the increased costs of doing business due to inflation, I do not believe additional revenue should be built solely on increases to property owners.

Maintaining stable tax rates (lower than the maximum allowed) for the past seven tax years has resulted in increased tax revenue for the county in line with keeping pace with the rate of inflation.

In tax year 2002 county government received less than $3.4 million in property tax revenue. This past tax year provided approximately $5 million in revenue. Over the last seven tax years this amounts to a $1.6 million increase in county government property tax revenue due primarily to new property (homes, businesses, etc.) being added to the tax base and improvements made to existing property – NOT THROUGH INCREASED TAX RATES! The valuation of taxable real property in 2002 was $3.2 billion compared to $5 billion in 2009. New home construction, business growth, and commercial development comprises approximately 50% of the $1.8 billion growth in the overall real property valuation with improvements to existing property and greater valuations resulting from increased property values accounting for the remainder of the growth.