A REALLY BAD IDEA

Ralph Bristol

…that just keeps surfacing

by Ralph Bristol, Facebook, Dec. 29, 2025-About this time every year, someone starts a social media campaign to eliminate property taxes for people 65 and over. Speaking as someone in that age group – I can’t think of a more selfish campaign. 

People 65 and over hold 70% of the nation’s wealth. Politicians and business owners constantly pander to us and it’s embarrassing. 

I don’t like property taxes, but the idea that the wealthiest segment of the population should get a special break, putting added pressure on our working children, who are already paying the massive payroll taxes that subsidize our medical bills and fund our retirement income to the tune of about $2.5 trillion a year, is born of ignorance, venality, or both. 

Conversely, replacing ALL property taxes is an idea worth considering, but it would require a hefty increase in other taxes. 

Property taxes provide the revenue for 20-40 percent of city budgets and about half of the average school district budget.  Unless you think schools and cities could manage the services we demand; police, fire, infrastructure maintenance, and education, eliminating the property tax altogether would require a large increase in sales taxes or the implementation of city income taxes. Those changes are worthy of consideration, but I detect no appetite for such a change. 

I look forward to the debate if such a proposal surfaces by a serious person in a position to instigate such a change, but until then, I hope everyone will forget the outrageous notion that property tax should be eliminated uniquely for people 65 and older.  

Sixteen states, including Tennessee, already provide property tax breaks for seniors with modest incomes. In November 2006, Tennessee voters approved an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution giving the General Assembly the authority to authorize counties and/or municipalities to implement a local option property tax freeze for taxpayers 65 years of age or older.  Tennessee also offers to reimburse part or all of the property taxes seniors pay, based on income limits and property value parameters, which are set annually. The current income limit is $37,500. 

If you see a social media post encouraging you to support the elimination of property taxes for people over 65, I hope you will politely inform the poster of his or her “misunderstanding” of the issue.

Ralph Bristol is the former long-time morning talk radio host broadcasting on Supertalk 99.7 WTN. He was one of the less provocative and bombastic of conservative radio personalities, more thoughtful and grounded in conservative ideas. He left talk radio in 2018 and retired. He lives in Nashville. 

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