Hardin County adopts 2025 property tax rates after public hearing

Hardin County Fiscal Court voted Tuesday to adopt property tax rates for 2025 after a public hearing required by Kentucky statute.

The court approved a real-estate tax rate of 10.8 cents per $100 of assessed value, a business personal property rate of 12.3 cents per $100, and a motor vehicle and watercraft rate of 11.5 cents per $100. The motion to adopt the rates carried on a roll-call vote with Squire Clem, Squire Hicks, Squire Muse, Squire Pennington, Squire Saltzman, Squire Thompson, Squire Whitehead, Squire Yates and Judge Executive Keith Taul voting yes.

County staff presented the tax settlement and the recommended rates to the court before the hearing. The county explained the two rate options calculated by the Department of Local Government: the "compensating" rate, which yields no new revenue compared with the prior year, and a rate that would raise 4% more revenue than the compensating rate. The court adopted the 4% revenue-option rates.

Why it matters: county officials said the 4% option was necessary to align projected tax receipts with the budget. The county's budgeted recurring operating expenses exceed recurring revenues; officials reported using one-time prior-year funds in the current budget and said the additional tax revenue would reduce a projected shortfall.

Key points from the presentation included: the compensating (no increase) real-estate rate would have been 10.4 cents per $100 and the 4%-increase real-estate rate calculated at 10.8 cents; a large increase in real-estate valuations allowed the real-estate rate to fall by 0.3 cents even while producing additional revenue; a roughly $30 million decline in tangible personal property valuations (mainly inventories and contractor equipment) pushed the business personal property rate upward; and the estimated net revenue difference between the two options was about $400,000 after accounting for assumed collection rates and sheriff's fees.

County Attorney Ginny Oldham opened and closed the required public hearing; no members of the public spoke. Oldham reminded the court that the hearing had been advertised on the statutorily required dates.

The court's action now authorizes staff to proceed with tax-bill preparation and mailing under the timetable set by state law.

Officials said the county will continue to monitor valuations and collections and that school and city tax rates are set separately by those governing bodies.

Ending: The adopted rates apply to county levies only and take effect for the 2025 tax year as set by statute. The court's clerk and county staff will publish the final rate schedule and next steps for taxpayers ahead of bill mailing.