The 2026 reappraisal and the new tax rate

• 2026 was a countywide reappraisal year. In the county's own words: "This was a reappraisal year, with most Bedford County property owners receiving higher appraisals of their property values." (Bedford County news release, June 30, 2026.)
• On June 30, 2026, at a special called meeting, the Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution No. 27-1, fixing the tax levy for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 at $1.5083 per $100 of assessed value — which the county's release identifies as "this year's certified tax rate, as provided by the state." The prior year's rate was $2.3252.
• The levy vote was 17–0 on a roll call. The appropriations resolution also passed 17–0, and a later vote on the full line-item budgets passed 15–2. (County release; roll call at 5:26 in the county's meeting video.)
• Introducing the levy resolution from the floor, it was described as one that "reflects the certified tax rate that … the reappraisal generated" (video, 5:20; wording per YouTube's auto-generated captions, mirrored on our unofficial transcript page — the video is the record).
• The same meeting approved the FY2026–27 appropriations — about $198.2 million across nine legally separate funds. The full fund-by-fund breakdown, verified against the county's budget book, is on our Money page.

• The Assessor of Property values every parcel; the Comptroller's office oversees the process. A property's tax bill "is based on a percentage of the fair market value of the property as determined by the assessor of property as of January 1 of the tax year," and "the law requires land and buildings be revalued for property tax purposes at least every six years (sometimes more often)" — the Tennessee Comptroller's own description. In Bedford County the elected assessor is the Assessor of Property, whose office states it "determines the value of all property in the county" and "reports assessments to the local and state boards of equalization."
• Each county runs on a multi-year cycle it selects. Per the Comptroller's Division of Property Assessments: the "assessor selects cycle (currently 4-, 5-, or 6-years)," the reappraisal plan is "approved by county commission and county mayor," and the State Board of Equalization "may approve or reject" it. Reappraisal, in the same source's words, is "not a tool to generate new revenue." Which cycle Bedford County is on is listed on the Comptroller's reappraisal schedule (linked below); see the open-items table for why this page doesn't restate it.
• Reappraisal is checked against actual sales. The Comptroller's Division of Property Assessments runs an appraisal ratio study in every county at least every two years — appraised value divided by sale price. Its Tax Year 2026 report (April 14, 2026) lists Bedford County at 1.0000, the ratio the report associates with a completed revaluation, where appraised and market values "should be similar" as of the appraisal date.
• Tax bills use assessed value, not appraised value. Assessed value is a fixed percentage of the appraised (market) value: 25% for residential and farm property, 40% for commercial/industrial, 55% for public utility property. The tax rate is applied per $100 of that assessed value.

Tennessee's certified tax rate law — Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 67-5-1701 through 1705, which the Comptroller calls "truth-in-taxation" — is designed so that a reappraisal by itself changes values, not the county's total revenue:

• The statute's own words: after a reappraisal, each governing body "shall determine and certify a tax rate which will provide the same ad valorem revenue for that jurisdiction as was levied during the previous year," excluding new construction and deletions. The proposed rate and its calculations are submitted to the State Board of Equalization for review before the governing body finally determines it. (Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1701(a)(3), (b).)
• The arithmetic of the rate drop: the same total dollars spread over a larger assessed-value base requires a lower rate per $100. That is why $1.5083 is about 35 percent below $2.3252 — the base rose, so the rate fell. Comparing the two rates as if they applied to the same property value would imply a 35 percent tax cut that the mechanism does not create. The Comptroller's Division of Property Assessments states the design cuts both ways: the law "prevents higher assessments after a general updating of values from automatically resulting in a general tax increase" and equally "prevents lower assessments … from automatically resulting in a general tax decrease."
• The arithmetic of an individual bill: a bill changes with how that property's value moved relative to the countywide average. In the Comptroller's words: "If a property's value increased as the result of the revaluation more than the average, the taxes may be somewhat higher, while if the value increased less than the average, the tax bill may actually be lower in a revaluation year compared to the year before." The county's release says the same thing about the average owner: adopting the certified rate "means that the average county property owner should not see much change in their property tax bill — unless their property value rose more or less than the average, or they made improvements."
• Exceeding the certified rate requires a public hearing. The law "requires local governments to conduct public hearings before adopting a property tax rate that generates more taxes overall in a reappraisal year than were billed the year before" (Comptroller). The rate the commission adopted on June 30, $1.5083, is the rate the county's release identifies as the certified tax rate itself.

Year	County tax rate (per $100 assessed)	What it is
FY2025–26	$2.3252	Prior rate, applied to pre-reappraisal values
FY2026–27	$1.5083	Certified tax rate generated by the 2026 reappraisal, adopted 17–0

These two rates apply to two different sets of property values. The drop in the rate is the certified-tax-rate mechanism operating as the statute directs, not a 35 percent tax cut — and not a tax increase either. Individual bills depend on the property-level arithmetic above.

The $1.5083 rate is the sum of five separate fund levies, as adopted June 30 and printed in the county's release:

Fund	Rate (per $100 assessed)
County General	$0.9276
General Purpose Schools	$0.4022
General Debt Service	$0.0973
Highway/Public Works	$0.0584
County Capital Projects	$0.0228
Total	$1.5083

Four other county funds — Child Nutrition, Education Capital Projects, School Age Care, and Drug Control — receive no property tax levy at all. What each fund pays for, its full budget, and where the rest of the county's money comes from are on the Money page, verified against the county's FY2026–27 budget book.

• Look up your property first. Your appraised value, assessed value, and classification are public, on the state's own database: Tennessee Property Assessment Data (pick Bedford County). The county assessor's office can explain how a value was reached, and the Comptroller notes some assessors offer an informal review — but "informal review is not an appeal."
• Step 1 — the County Board of Equalization. "With limited exception, a disputed assessment must first be appealed to the county board of equalization of where the property is located or it becomes final" (Comptroller). In general, a county board "convenes its regular session on June 1st of each year"; for the current year's exact dates and filing deadlines, the Comptroller directs taxpayers to the county assessor's office.
• Step 2 — the State Board of Equalization. An appeal from the county board "must be filed on or before August 1 of the tax year, or within forty-five (45) days of the date notice of the local board action was sent, whichever is later." It is heard first by an administrative judge, whose decision can be reviewed by the State Board and, after that, by a chancery court.
• A reappraisal increase is not, by itself, grounds for appeal. The Comptroller's guidance to appellants: "An increase in value of a property under appeal following a county-wide reappraisal — without more — neither invalidates the assessment nor justifies a basis for changing the assessment." The burden is on the appellant to show what the correct value should be, typically with comparable sales.
• Taxes stay due while an appeal is pending. "The law requires that you pay at least the undisputed portion of your taxes prior to the delinquency date to avoid penalties and interest" (Comptroller, citing Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1512(b)).

Each open item below is answerable by a specific public document. As those documents are obtained, this page fills in.

Open item	The document that would answer it
Which reappraisal cycle (4-, 5-, or 6-year) Bedford County is on, and its next reappraisal year	The Comptroller's Reappraisal Schedule lists this per county; its table loads in a browser but did not transcribe into our source archive, so this page does not restate it
The full text of Resolution No. 27-1 (the tax levy) as adopted	The June 30, 2026 commission packet / adopted resolution — not yet archived; the rate and vote above are from the county's release and the meeting video
The certified-tax-rate calculation itself — the assessed-value base and the SBOE-reviewed worksheet behind $1.5083	The certified tax rate form submitted to the State Board of Equalization by the assessor and county mayor (Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1701(b))
How many dollars each fund's levy is expected to raise at the new rate (the FY2027 "penny value")	Per-fund Current Property Tax detail lines of the FY2026–27 budget book — not yet extracted from the scanned book

Every source this page uses is public:

• Your property's appraised and assessed value — Tennessee Property Assessment Data (pick Bedford County).
• The county's own announcement of the June 30 budget and tax rate votes.
• How the certified tax rate works — TN Comptroller / State Board of Equalization.
• The certified tax rate statute — Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1701.
• How to appeal an assessment — county board first, then the State Board of Equalization.
• The June 30 meeting video — and our unofficial searchable transcript of it.
• The Money page — every fund, every rate, every source, verified against the county's own documents.

The tax rate is set by the County Commission each year alongside the budget — the Comptroller notes that taxpayers "can discuss or express concern about the tax rate at the office or meetings of their county commissioners," and any future proposal to exceed a certified rate requires a published public hearing first. Questions about a specific property's value belong to the Assessor of Property; disputes run through the county Board of Equalization and then the State Board of Equalization, on the path above. Commission meetings, agendas, and videos appear in Open Bedford's meeting coverage automatically — that is how this site surfaces county business.