The post Buying a new home? Here’s how to calculate your property tax! appeared first on We Are Memphis.
]]>When moving to Memphis, it is important to note that there are both county and city taxes. I’ve found that when determining taxes, many first-time home buyers will come up with one, but not the other, which is why they are surprised come tax time when they need to pay both city and county taxes.
Currently, for 2018, the Shelby County property tax for a home’s appraised value is 4.05 percent. Additionally, the city tax rate for Memphis is another 3.19 percent.
Should you move to the county but live outside of Memphis, there are reduced tax rates in neighboring cities. The tax rates for these cities are as follows:
To start, you need to know what your 2018 appraised value is. If you are buying a home, you should have the property appraised. The appraised value is not always what you end up paying for it. If there is a bidding war for the home, you may end up paying more than the current value of the property. In this instance, the appraisal will show that you owe less than what you paid for it.
Once you have the appraised value, it’s easiest to start with the county property taxes. For example, if your property was appraised for $150,000, you will multiply it by 4.05 (or 150,000 x 0.0405). This comes out to $1,518.75 for the county property taxes.
Next, you need to determine your city property tax. We will use the Memphis tax rate of 3.19 (if you live right on the city line, it is important to know what side of the street the line is on. It may be the difference of nearly two percent). Using the same calculation method of $150,000 for the property value, you will multiply it by 3.19 (150,000 x 0.0319). This comes out to $1,196.25.
So someone who owns a home with an appraised property value of $150,000 and lives within the city of Memphis will end up paying $2,715 for their home.
Hopefully, this helps you out with determining your property value taxes and what to expect come tax time.
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]]>The post Literacy Mid-South Promoting Lifelong Learning here in Memphis appeared first on We Are Memphis.
]]>Imagine that after a long job hunt, you’ve landed a position with great benefits. After three months with the company, you attend a benefit enrollment session. The HR representative gives you a heavy packet and says all needed information can be found inside. What would you do if you couldn’t read the information provided? Would you ask for help in a room filled with your coworkers or stay silent? Would you take a guess at the best option hoping it’s the right plan for you and your family?
Basic literacy skills are required to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Think about reading prescription labels, medical paperwork, and job applications. The ability to read and write at a 6th-grade level is a quality of life issue affecting more than 100,000 adults in our community.
Now, imagine you’re a 4th grader who reads on a 2nd grade level. You’ve managed to make it this far despite the stress, anxiety, and isolation that often comes with low literacy. What would you do if the language on your standardized test, in your textbook, and your daily worksheet was too difficult to understand? What if your parents also read at a 2nd grade level? Would you become the class clown so everyone would focus on your behavior and not your schoolwork?
76% of 4th graders in Shelby County left 3rd grade without reading on grade level. 3rd grade is the final year students are taught to read. It is assumed and expected that all students are reading at grade level by the end of 3rd grade. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Shelby County.
Literacy Mid-South provides education resources to children and adults of all ages and backgrounds. They serve as a literacy hub for local nonprofits by providing them with the tools needed to influence literacy education in Memphis. Literacy Mid-South provides a platform for local organizations to collaborate and maximize their impact on the community. They address low literacy through two programs: The Adult Learning Program and Read901.
Literacy Mid-South is the only organization in Memphis providing adult basic education services to the 100,000+ adults reading at or below a 6th-grade level. They have a dedicated team of 250+ trained volunteer tutors facilitating both one-on-one and classroom sessions for over 600 Adult Basic Education and English Language Learning learners. More than 80% of learners have reached their personal and academic goals.
The Adult Learning Program supports learners like Darlene, who dreams of one day becoming a Pharmacy Technician. Darlene always knew she struggled with reading, but never imagined she was on a 3rd grade level until entering the Adult Learning Program. Darlene was matched with a one-on-one tutor and quickly began making progress. She moved up 3 reading levels every year for four years and exited the program reading at a 10th-grade level!
Read901 is a citywide initiative on one of the most important indicators of academic success: grade-level reading by the end of 3rd grade. Read901 combines the strength of community-based organizations, funders, city agencies, and corporations around 3rd grade reading proficiency. Through partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club, Memphis Athletic Ministries, the Refugee Empowerment Program, Streets Ministries, and many others, Read 901 provides out of school time literacy education to over 3,500 students in Shelby County.
Read901 helps partner organizations bridge the gap between student’s current reading levels and their academic success. Without their support, students like 9-year-old old Sandibel would continue to fall behind in school. When Sandibel entered the program, she tested at a very low reading level. She has since made great strides, even surpassing some of the students that entered the program with her. Now, Sanidibel has empowered herself to become an extremely successful reader and wants to be a police officer one day. Her love of reading has also impacted her family. Sandibel reads a bedtime story to her two baby brothers every night! A love of reading like Sandibel’s is contagious, and Literacy Mid-South is helping it spread to every corner of the city.
Want to join Literacy Mid-South in transforming Grind City into a community actively engaged in lifelong learning? Click Here to get involved!
Sign up to participate in the upcoming New Tutor Training Session on November 10th.
Visit their website at www.LiteracyMidSouth.org to learn more or contact the Literacy Mid-South Team.
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]]>The post Here’s a list of Memphis libraries appeared first on We Are Memphis.
]]>Each of the 18 libraries in Memphis has its own Facebook page, giving you the opportunity to get a feel for each library before you visit as well as keeping you informed about upcoming special events. Most locations offer public Wi-Fi, meeting rooms and copy services, with additional available amenities listed online. Here’s a quick rundown of all 18 libraries in Memphis:
As previously mentioned, each library maintains its own special events calendar. You can also find a list of those events and many more on the I Love Memphis blog.
For Memphis travel tips, visit Memphis Travel!
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]]>The post The Memphis trolley: The new way to get around downtown! appeared first on We Are Memphis.
]]>The Memphis Area Transit Authority trolley system began running in 1993. Although the trolleys enjoyed a 21-year run of shuffling locals and tourists through the heart of the city, they haven’t operated in Memphis since 2014, when service was suspended after fires broke out on two cars.
Lucky for us, after extensive repairs, renovations and refurbishment, the trolleys are back! Memphians and visitors alike can once again experience the romance of a vintage trolley car ride along Main Street.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony and inaugural ride on the new trolley system took place on April 30, 2018. Initially, three trolley cars will be in service (a green car, a gold car, and a blue-and-white two-tone car), with more to be added throughout the year. Before you know it, these colorful cars will be a common sight in Memphis, and their whistles blowing will be a familiar sound.
For now, one trolley line—the Main Street Line—is in operation, running from Butler Avenue to A.W. Willis Avenue past the Convention Center. The Riverfront Line and the Madison Avenue Line will return in the coming years.
The trolleys make 13 stops along the Main Street Line, many of them sheltered, and cars will run once every 20 to 30 minutes depending on the day of the week. A map of the route is available here along with information on the coming-soon Riverfront and Madison Ave. lines, while the MATA website offers details on trolley fares and passes. At the time of publication, a ride on the trolley costs $1 and you can get a day pass for $3.50.
Are the trolleys fast? Well, not exactly. But they are fun, reliable, stylish and will get you from A to B a heck of a lot faster than walking. To be more specific, traveling from one end of downtown to the other via trolley takes half an hour or less.
If nothing else, the experience of rolling through Memphis aboard a vintage trolley car sporting an antique-looking interior and wooden seats is an experience that every visitor to Memphis should have at least once. And if you happen to live here, the trolleys are a great option for getting around and seeing our city in a new way.
Looking for an App that tells the history of Memphis? Check this out!
For more amazing Memphis content, check out Choose901!
For Memphis travel tips, visit Memphis Travel!
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]]>The post Memphis named the most generous city in the US! appeared first on We Are Memphis.
]]>When it comes to generosity and investing in the community, Memphis leads the pack. According to a study from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Memphis ranks as the most charitable city in the United States.
After trailing Salt Lake City, the last time rankings were revealed, Memphis broke into the top spot in 2017, spurred by increased giving to the public-school system. All told, Memphians give 5.6 percent of their overall income to charitable causes. That number is up from 5.1 percent in 2014, the last time the study was released.
Memphians were largely inspired to keep giving generously by a $90 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Teacher Effectiveness Institute (TEI) of Memphis City Schools in 2009. Their belief in Memphis’ ability to keep growing and thriving have renewed belief in the Bluff City and opened the floodgates for local residents to also contribute.
Over the last decade, the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis has grown to an asset size of $430 million, and many of the donations coming in were specifically targeted to the public-school system. In 2017, that allowed the group to hand out $161 million in grants around the city.
Many also point to Memphis’ being a Southern city rooted in church philanthropy as influencing charitable giving. Cities like Birmingham and Atlanta, who also carry the same distinction, also ranked high on the list.
Besides the education system, other benefactors of Memphis’ philanthropy included:
While some point to big changes in the federal tax code as it relates to charitable giving possibly hampering philanthropic giving across the country, there’s reason for optimism in Memphis. The number of public projects that have been sustained or initiated through Memphis’ generosity seems almost self-sustaining. That is, seeing all the good charitable giving has done for our city spurs continued giving.
Now that’s something to be proud of!
For more information on all things Memphis, click here!
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