Murfreesboro, TN – Rutherford County property owners may soon be checking their mailboxes for unexpected tax bills—or refunds—after Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower delivered a scathing report to county commissioners Thursday night. The findings? One in four property assessments were wrong, and the county’s entire appraisal process was described as “riddled with errors.”
“There is not one property-owning taxpayer in Rutherford County that should have any degree of confidence in their property assessment,” Mumpower said, adding that the assessor’s work resembled “a pile of sinking sand.”
The state’s review of 8,683 parcels uncovered missing buildings, misfiled property changes, and incorrect square footage. In one example, two nearly identical homes had a $217,000 difference in appraised value—costing one homeowner over $1,000 annually in excess taxes…