PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY (WSLS 10) - John Merricks, a co-owner of RV Outlet USA in Ringgold, has been trying to get the county to lower the rate business owners are taxed on their remaining inventory at the end of the year.
At Tuesday's board of supervisors meeting, he got his wish.
"I guess the county sat down and said 'hey, if we're going to make it more attractable for more companies to come here, we need to lower the tax rate'," Merricks explained.
The tax rate has been reduced from almost 9Â percent to 2.75 percent and the amount of inventory businesses will be taxed on depends on the value of the inventory.
If the total value of the inventory is between $1 and $1 million, the business will be taxed 2.75 percent on 30 percent of the original price of the inventory.
For inventory totaling between $1 million and $5 million, the business will be taxed 2.75 percent on 10 percent of the original price of the inventory.
Any business with inventory that totals more than $5 million dollars will be taxed 2.75 percent on five percent of the original price of the inventory.
Merricks said this is a huge step forward for the county, as the tax rate hadn't been changed in more than 50 years and has made him willing to consider keeping his business in the county, but he hopes this isn't the end of the road.
"It helped a little bit. There are still a couple more things we need to get tweaked," Merricks pointed out.
But, supervisor Jerry Hagerman says this likely is the end of the road.
"Some of our supervisors want to have all the taxes they can get because that makes everybody's job easier," said Hagerman.
Hagerman runs a small gunsmith business from his home.
He says he had no idea just how negatively the county's exorbitantly high tax rate was affecting business owners.
Once he started hearing from citizens and crunching the numbers, he found out that he, himself, would have to go out of business if the tax rate was not lowered and he knows he's not the only one in that situation.
"It really makes me realize what our citizens are going to have to do," Hagerman said.
He voted against the change Tuesday night because he, like Merricks, didn't think it went far enough. He would like to see the tax rate at about 1 percent.
The new rate will allow him to stay in business, but he says he's already making plans to sell.