Maybe Town - Separating Myth from Reality

Nothing says "I am right, so don't argue with me" like a colorful bar chart. Maybe it is the Irish in me but I get a little nervous when someone hands me a report, or graph or bar chart and they fail to mention where they got the data. Makes me think they just don't want anyone to look too hard.


Such is the case, in part, with the New York City sized telephone book of marketing materials Council members received from the May Town Center developers. It has a few handy documents like the SP zoning application and a Brookings Study. But it also has a bar chart comparing Williamson County's tax base growth with Davidson County's.


We need to do the best possible job we can attracting and retaining employers but I have always found the argument that Williamson County was stealing our tax base to be a little misleading. A friend of mine says it is sort of like comparing the growth of your 18 year old with a 3 year old. Given that skepticism, I wanted to take a closer look at the question of tax base growth.


The bar chart does not cite a source so I pulled up some old financials on Williamson Co. Sure enough, for Fiscal Year 1994 (see page 26 of pdf), Williamson County had $1.472 billion in assessed valuation. Of that amount, $966 million was residential and farm and $307 million was commercial and industrial. At the end of FY08 (see page 47 of pdf), total assessed valuation for the WilCo was $6.630 billion. So, Williamson County's tax base grew $5.158 billion in 15 years. This is where the May Town developers want you to be so scared you will agree that the sacrifice of Bells Bend will be worth it. My Lord, our very existence depends on it.

But does it? Of this $5.158 billion, $3.651 billion was a result of growth in residential and farm assessments. That's right, 70% of the growth in Williamson County's tax base is attributable to home and raw land values. The growth in commercial and industrial assessments accounts for $1.261 billion during the 15 year period or about 24% of the total. Their growth in the commercial area is certainly significant but not to the degree that May Town developers would like you to believe.

Of course, I doubt you would find Williamson County's theft of our subdivisions to be that terrifying.