Greene County commissioners as a whole voiced displeasure with a recent decision by the state that over $1.3 million in local option sales tax be withheld from the Town of Greeneville and Greene County due to a state mistake four years ago.
But in the end, the twenty commissioners in attendance voted to approve the resolution accepting the state withholding the money related to the accounting issues by the state in 2021. Although required, the vote seemed a bit “after the fact” as Trustee Nathan Holt, who discovered the state mistake, said the first withhold of the money over a three-month period had already been made by the state.
As Radio Greeneville News first told you two weeks ago, because of a financial mistake made by state auditors in 2021, Greeneville City and Greene County owe a combined $1.3 million dollars in local option sales tax monies back to the state over the next three months.
In 2021, a local business, which was not named during discussion about the matter at the Greene County Budget and Finance Committee meeting Wednesday, was allowed to withhold option sales tax. But four years later, the state has established the business should not have been granted the waiver. By the way, six years is the statute of limitations on mistakes such as that being discovered and corrected by the state.
In lieu of a direct one time or monthly payment to the state, a total of $1,321,599.00 will be withheld from Greeneville and Greene County over the next three months. Half of the monies go to the education debt service with the remainder to the ADA in the school systems. The amount due back in ADA monies from the county is $434,784 and $226,000 from the Town of Greeneville.
