County Commission Votes Tax Increase By 5-4

[CMF Newsman]

The County Commission voted 5-4 on Thursday morning for a 26-cent property tax increase.

Voting in favor were Curtis Adams, Richard Casavant, Greg Beck, Warren Mackey and John Brooks.

Opposed were Larry Henry, Fred Skillern, Bill Hullander and Jim Coppinger.

County School Board member Rhonda Thurman, who led an anti-tax fight, said immediately after the vote, "Our tax money was used to bribe commissioners for votes. The whole thing stinks."

www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_110008.asp

[tncoaster37]

to all those Commissioners who voted for this. I hope to hell that you get hammered when it comes to your re-election. You are nothing more than blood suckers.

Look, we are taxed all the time in the forms of licenses. I live in the county and I don't get hardly any services that the county is supposed to deliver. I don't have any kids in the public school system and there is no street lights or any fire protection except for the volunteer fire department, no garbage services. The onyl service I get is the streets and the cops who are called out when the neighbors don't like it when I shoot off some firecrackers and shoot on my own property. The county taxpayers aren't getting the services that amount to the increase. Everything we have, we are taxed on. If you own something then you shouldn't be taxed on it period. This only proves my point that we are all slaves to the government in which we don't own a single thing as long as we are taxed on it constantly. It is time that we the taxpayers stop this charade and start standing up to the tax tyrants.

It doesn't make any sense that the county taxes have to be raised every 2 years now just give the blood suckers on the county commission a raise. The city taxes of Chattanooga and the rest of the cities in this county will have to be raised as well to match those of the county. The commissioners should be humble when elected so that they can serve the public not themselves to the county taxes. Public servants is that the commisioners are along with the county employees. Like FDR said in 1938, "Government shouldn't be an alien body that constantly tax it's citizens or should it be ever growing in size so that the citizen is afraid of it. For it is the government who should be afraid since the poweris up to the voters to make it accountable."

[Kordax]

Here's a link to all the commissioners & their email sites:

www.hamiltontn.gov/commission/Default.aspx

Keep your Commissioners' address, let him know now your reaction to his vote, and keep in touch with the guy on a regualr basis. Rhonda & others will probably know of fiscally responsible challengers in the wings for each Commissioner who voted pro tax -- it's time to get busy & get behind new people who will vote correctly on tax increase proposals & who will vote to roll back some of this pork....

[gridbug]

Pork for all!

I think it is funny that Curtis Adams' biggest justification was for the new schools, but the school board was NOT pushing for them...

I am sure the commisioners will enjoy their raise.

[emanon]

And why does every school need an SRO? Really? Isn't discipline the job of the principal, vp, and the rest of the staff? I know, I know, some kids need more than that. Well, if there are kids that need a police presence, then maybe they don't need to be in the school.

[tncoaster37]

The fact is that we don't need the SRO's unless the principal and the other personnel can't handle the students. When I was in school back in the 70's and early 80's, the teacher could paddle the heck out of you if you didn't behave.

[tncoaster37]

I am wondering how many of you are willing to put your money where your mouth is if you are truly pissed off about what has happened today at the county commission meeting. How many of you are pissed off now and within the next few weeks cool down and support the tax raising commissioners who raised your taxes? For me, I am going to be pissed off until these commissioners get out of office since they let us know who they are for and that is for themselves.

[Felix]

Prices for all goods and services tend to go up year by year. Why should I be more upset about property taxes going up than gasoline or beer? Actually, I monitor beer prices on a day-to-day basis. Staff of life and all that.

You get too upset all the time, Coaster.

If I have a break from watching beer prices, I may check how the per cent increase in taxes compares to the direction and amount of gross Hamilton County income. Many here like to compare the amount of the federal debt to per cent of GDP. Apples and oranges, I know, but it would be interesting to compare cost of county gov't to incomes here.

[tncoaster37]

Marvell, if you enjoy being a slave to the government in paying this tax which will not go to the schools then enjoy paying it. You are a sheeple who will take whatever the government will from you. Like I stated, this board is full of sheeple who don't care about if the taxes are raised so high that they will give the government whatever it says. But you will benefit if people like me and a few others here stand up to the government.

Why should the government continue to raise taxes when they have multitude of new subdivisions having homes that range from the high $100,000 to the million dollar range? Also the county need to provide more services for what they are getting. Guess what they aren't. Plus if the county taxes are raised then so does the city to match it. We are paying more in property tax per capita than the other major cities in TN not including all of TN for that matter. $.46 of each property tax goes to pay just one salary and that is Ramsey. We are too top heavy in the county commission as well as every department in both city and county government.

Marvell, I hope you will be happy when they raise taxes again and then force you out of Hamilton county. Do you wonder why we haven't got any big business at the Enterprise south site? The answer is the property tax is the highest in TN. Many of the big companies are leaving this county due to the high taxes. It's time that you realize that you are a slave to the government and it's time to break those chains for good.

[2hauntu]

kordax said:

Here's a link to all the commissioners & their email sites:

www.hamiltontn.gov/commission/Default.aspx

Keep your Commissioners' address, let him know now your reaction to his vote, and keep in touch with the guy on a regualr basis. Rhonda & others will probably know of fiscally responsible challengers in the wings for each Commissioner who voted pro tax -- it's time to get busy & get behind new people who will vote correctly on tax increase proposals & who will vote to roll back some of this pork....

Kordax, Thanks for the link. Worth sharing again!

We get an increase in money from the state/gov. and then we turn around a gouge the citizens also?
I believe we need to quit hiring groups from out of state to evaluate what we need to do and form an advisory board made of constituents from Hamilton county to look into budgets... (IMO)

Some of the expenditures and claims by the current commission is ludicrous...

Off to write my letters.

Once a tax increase - it doesn't go away. But it goes to say we will have a new mayor for Hamilton County next election... Any takers? ;D

[Kordax]

from the Chattanoogan Opinion section:

With all the discussion for and against a property tax increase, I have seen no one compare our tax rates with other metro areas in Tennessee. Our current property tax rate is now higher than Knox County and our combined Chattanooga/Hamilton County tax rate is already higher than Nashville Metro.
www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_109978.asp

The question needs to be asked of every County Commisioner, repeatedly, "How will having comparatively higher tax rates than larger, more dynamic Tennessee metro regions affect our ability to recruit & retain business to the Chattanooga region?"

[2hauntu]

Amen.

[tncoaster37]

We already have the highest taxes in the state. Now you will see how may businesses run for the borders thanks to The 5 blood suckers. It's time that we do something to them by seeing that they don't get re-elected to any public office ever. They don't deserve or know what it means to be a public servant for which they are.

[snarkalicious]

Why do we even have a Hamilton County mayor?

[tncoaster37]

That's true snark. We need to realize that we are being screwed by the commission and the people behind them. Did you know that Hamilton County government has in excess of 40,000 people working for it while as the city only has 1900 employees which has maintained that 1900 for more than a decade? So why is it that county government needs over 40,000 and many of them are duplicate jobs as in other departments. Being a public servant shouldn't be a lifetime job since it only leads to more corruption the longer a person stays in office. They start referring to thier job as mine instead of the people's job. We are thier employers and too many here don't realize it who have become sheeple. The sheeple or slaves believe in taking whatever the government aka slavemaster says as the truth and gives it whatever it wants regardless to the cost to them or thier children in the long run.

We need someone who will fire alot of people who has relatives in county government and will stand behind thier decision. It's time to stand up and take back the government which has become a tyrant and a slavemaster.

[exccinsider]

tncoaster37 said:

Did you know that Hamilton County government has in excess of 40,000 people working for it while as the city only has 1900 employees which has maintained that 1900 for more than a decade?

40,000!!!!? Dude, what are you smoking!? Last I heard (not counting the school system), the county had around the same number of employees as the city.

There's no need in making up numbers to further your cause, we all know you don't like taxes.

[tcrashfx]

40,000? Employees?

Coaster does like taxes, people.

As long as the taxes are spent on him and as long as he doesn't have to pay it back.

It is funny how soon after the vote, the Commissioners who voted against the tax increase, are already salivating over the extra $$$$!

I wonder if the anti-tax Commissioners (And Rhonda) are going to give back their raises in protest?

[tncoaster37]

Heck Crash, I can say the same thing for you since it pays your salary. In my case, Screw the taxes.

[Felix]

From SEIDA, one site I found with figures, this is the breakdown of employees for county and city:

Hamilton County:

HCDE: 4,723
Other: 1,042
Total: 5,765

City of Chattanooga:

Total: 2,459

Apparently these figures follow census date, don't know if the data is adjusted by interim research.

**Edited for this caveat: I don't believe these figures include joint enterprises like Erlanger or the library. Probably others not accounted for. I doubt the county has anything approaching five figures, though, although perhaps the Coaster Data Center can provide backup for his figures.


I think Coaster simply is a victim of his own feverish hatred of all those forces arrayed against him, so he hasn't time or energy to seek facts when emotion is ruling him; and that is all the time. Also affects his typing, spelling, vocabulary and other trifles.

Hard to concentrate when you have to be always looking over your shoulder for those black helicopters and watching out for persons of color ganging up on you.

Coaster: I would like to be even-handed and treat your posts seriously, but you just make it too hard.

[vanstheman]

Back to the matter at hand.Coaster.....please show some proof of the 40,000 county employee statement.

[Mr. Manners]

If you will look at the District map and then consider who voted which way it seems to me Commissioners in the lower income/lower property value districts voted For the tax increase while those in the more affluent districts voted Against the tax increase. Folks, this is a tax on the more affluent for the benefit of the less affluent. If you think the dregs are going to vote out their Commissioner for sticking it to whitey you have another thought coming.

Mike

[tcrashfx]

I would challenge (As have others with no response, to date) the anti-tax people to provide a detailed analysis of how they would balance the Hamilton County budget with no tax increase.

I would like them to put their money where their mouth is. Instead of whining and bitchin', let them provide a solution.

And has Rhonda Thurman (Who I usually agree with) offered to give back her raise that she is receiving as a result of the tax increase?

Has she offered to return all the new tax money that will go to schools in her school district?

Are the anti-tax Commissioners going to return their raises also?

Or return the tax dollars gained that will provide the same level of County services their constituents have been getting?

Has Tim Price or John Wolfe proffered a solution to the problem?

Mr. Price was challenged by Stuart James to provide a balanced budget, without a tax increase and he failed to do so.

I'll listen Saturday to see if he is going to respond to the challenge.

[Kordax]

Crash, Rhonda is on the case -- look for rolling disclosures! Her style based on history is to identify pre-existing wasteful spending program by program & call for accompanying program elimination and/or cutbacks in order to reduce / eliminate waste.

The County spends money on:

• The Chamber
  
• A slew of non-profit initiative
  
• Greenways
  
• Riverbend
  
• Reading programs independent of the skool system
  
• Travel
  
• The Trade Center
  
• Industrial development bonds
  
• A hyper rich, dinosaur healthcare plan
  
• Public Art
  
• Aquarium
  
• Findley Stadium
  
  

And they have a longstanding policy of encouraging nepotism, they do not have routine outside audits, they’ve wasted millions of dollars on failed economic development initiatives over the years yet they have the nerve to inflate the cost of government to the highest per capita cost in the state (for City residents) in a region that has a stagnant population growth. Our leadership is bankrupt….

[Kordax]

Blank -- double post.

[tncoaster37]

Hey Crash, the recent tax increase wasn't for the schools but for the idiots on the commission themselves. The schools should be funded by the bonds which are on a 15 year issuance. They could have built the schools with the renewing of those boads but they chose to spend it on thier pet projects. The issue shouldn't be how much money are we going to through at the problem but in accountability which the county government refuses to address. We the citizens of Hamilton County are the employers of the commission and the government not the other way around. We shouldn't be working to give the fat bastards in ogvernment a raise to be equal with thier private sector counter-parts. They took the job knowing what they would get and should be satisified witrh that. Hell, most of them are working in another job and thus getting benefits from both the county and private sector jobs. We all knew that Casavants was going to vote the tax in since he never met a tax that he didn't like. There was bribes involved with the recent increase and everyone knows it but refuses to publicly admit it. Brooks even siad that he wouldn't vote for the tax until more minorities was hired in government. Later he claimed he didn't say that. Adams lied about the back door deal involving building the new school in his district. Signal Mountian has voted in a no deal on any new sewers for the next 5 years. That leaves that new school they are building shit out of luck as for as being occupied this school year. Mackey is nothing more than a liar since he sat on the fence at the first protest meeting. I have to hand it to him that he had the guts to show up while the others are too much of chicken-shits to do so.

[tcrashfx]

# The Chamber
# A slew of non-profit initiative
# Greenways
# Riverbend
# Reading programs independent of the skool system
# Travel
# The Trade Center
# Industrial development bonds
# A hyper rich, dinosaur healthcare plan
# Public Art
# Aquarium
# Findley Stadium

Cut them all. Still won't balance the budget with no tax increase and no cut in emergency services.

Are you going to cut my pay even further by increasing my health care costs that were benefits given in lieu of raises over the years. Are you going to remove those raises I got? With my big 3% raise I got this year, I took yet another real dollar pay cut again.

Is Thurman going to give back her raise and the extra $$$ her school district is receiving?

Are Henry and the rest of the anti-tax crowd going to do the same?

If they were truly anti-tax, they would do so out of protest.

[Kordax]

Still won't balance the budget with no tax increase and no cut in emergency services.

If the current elected County Government isn't willing to cut the fat, the frills & the frufru from the budget forever regardless of "balance", why should anyone that doesn't enjoy a vested interest in inflated taxation support additional inflating -- the annual costs for wastefull government has no checks & "balances" absent people like Rhonda, does it?

Especially given the sham "we must pay more for employee retention" reasoning Ramsey flung on the faces of taxpayers just as if he was spreading the mucked out contents of a couple of hundred stables on his land .... others may feast on that stuff, but not Kordax.

_{(Crash, do you have access to a line item County Government budget? If so, send me a copy & we'll debate specifics....)}

[tcrashfx]

(Crash, do you have access to a line item County Government budget? If so, send me a copy & we'll debate specifics....)

Everyone should have access to the line items. If we had a real media around here maybe they could get it for us.

I would think that each division would have their line items and you would have to go each one to get their's and then do the math.

I am still waiting for Tim Price and John Wolfe to provide their "No Tax Increase, Same Service" budget. They didn't bring it up today, so maybe they are having trouble getting the line items too!

[tncoaster37]

Crash, it's obvious that you want higher taxes since you are a government employee. When is it ever going to be enough for you? There is no accountability in this at all. There has been 7 tax increases since 1999, whether it was the sales tax or property tax increases. Think of this as your budget and you only has some much going in and you have to shell out more everytime in taxes at the whim of the commissioners. Remember that you chose to be a cop and live within your means. The same can be said about the comissioners who are employed by the citizens of this county. We didn't want a tax increase since we all know where it would go and that was in the commissioners back pockets like in this case. I was shocked that no one who wanted the increase showed up at either the tax protest or at Ryans. I guess they was too chicken to show up and face the majority of the populous.

[cloverhoney]

So many times the problem is not the need for more tax monies but for better spending of existing tax monies.