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These
smiling
Blount County
politicians
did not have the courage to cut the Sheriff's budget So they imposed a tax increase on YOU
The Daily Times article shows $9.3 million of Blount County overspending! The Sunday Daily Times said that Jim Folts (really Citizens for Better Government):“claimed that the County overspends by $9.8 million, a figure that would not seem to be borne out by the Daily Times analysis”. Guess what! It turns out that using the same comparison counties – Sullivan and Sumner, the Daily Times analysis shows $9.3 million of overspending by Blount County. You read it right. We used the Daily Times numbers and method. They showed more than $9 million of Blount overspending, just as the Citizens for Better Government (CFBG) study did. (We dropped Washington County, because they do not report in the categories used by the Daily Times). Does this sound different from what you read in the Sunday article? Actually, the information was shown in the charts that accompanied the article. Was this a “bait and switch” piece, showing good data, along with an article serving the interests of the political machine? (Click here for more) Other
problems in the
Sunday Daily
Times
budget article
The Sunday Daily Times article attacks the Citizens for Better Government comparison of Blount County spending with the three counties closest to us in population (Washington, Sullivan and Sumner). The article starts out by attacking the very idea of using average per capita spending, to develop benchmarks for County spending. If this is true, why does the author use per capita spending in all his charts that accompany the article. Matt Murray claims that looking at average spending of other counties implies that the counties “he has chosen are efficient”. This comment makes no sense. (Click here for more) For
the
last
several
months
we
have
been
giving a presentation showing
a
comparison of Blount County
spending with the spending of
the three
counties closest to us in
population - Washington,
Sullivan and Sumner.
The comparison is based on the
FY-09 audit reports for the
counties.
The spending numbers were
carefully reviewed and
adjusted to assure a
true apples and apples
comparison. The totals for
each major portion of
the General Fund Budget were
then adjusted for differences
in
population. The results show
that Blount County spending is
badly out
of control. The
County is spending $9 million
(23%) more than the
AVERAGE of the
other counties. More
than $5 million of this
problem is due to wasteful
spending in the
Sheriff's department. If the
county would just bring its
spending into
line with the AVERAGE of the
other Counties, there would be
no need for
a tax increase and we could
begin to pay off some of our
crushing $230
million in debt. Click
on slide below
to see all slides.
 Sheriff Berrong’s huge vehicle fleet is costing YOU a fortune According to the 2010 Audit Report, the Sheriff had 270 employees. Approximately 104 of those worked in the Jail. Another 24 worked in Juvenile Detention. Approximately another 10 work in secretarial, records clerical positions. That leaves approximately 136 people in the Sheriff’s department who are likely to have a legitimate need for a County vehicle. The problem is that the Audit Report shows the Sheriff has 247 vehicles. The Sheriff’s fleet consists of 173 patrol cars, 40 SUVs, 18 trucks, 6 vans, 6 motorcycles and 4 cars. No matter how you slice it, the Sheriff appears to have approximately 100 vehicles more than he needs. Those 100 extra vehicles are costing you, the Blount County taxpayers, more than $1 million per year. (Click here for more) All the while, the Sheriff has failed to point out that he, and many of his top officials, have been generously compensated over the last few years. The table below shows their compensation increases far exceed those of most taxpayers, who will struggle to pay the 21% tax increase that is the result of the refusal of some of our county officials to trim their budgets. (Click here for more) Melton further aggravated the situation by making another ruling eliminating the long tradition of Commission members yielding additional time to allow citizens to finish their remarks, if they run over their allotted three minute limit. At the end of the meeting Chairman Melton even used police force to eject a citizen, who was reading a passage from the Bible and ran slightly over his allotted time. Click here to see the video Nearly
$3,000,000 in Blount County taxes delinquent
and overdue by as much as
three years. While most citizens struggle to
pay their taxes in these
tough times, some high profile members of
the community, and businesses
they control, don't bother to pay. Two are
even County Commissioners.
Thruth Radio 1470, has put a compete list
of the non-payers
on
their website. This list covers the tax
years 2006 through 2009 and is
dated 9/30/2010. Take a look. You may be
surprised at some of the
people who are on it. The Search command on
the Edit menu makes it easy
to search for your favorite non-payer, by
name, address, shell
corporation, etc.
Commissioner
Jim
Folts
starts
a
website to report to the citizensCommissioner
Folts has started a new website to report
what happened at each
Commission meeting. Folts explained the
website, www.jimfolts.com,
is part of a
commitment he made to the citizens during
his campaign, to listen
carefully and tell everybody exactly what
their government is doing (or
not doing). Take a look and tell Folts what
you think.
No idea of the person's qualifications - Vote anyway Commissioner Jim Folts offered an amendment requesting a resume or similar document on each candidate. Incredibly, the amendment was voted down. Burchfield, Carver, Caylor, Farmer, French, Greene, Harrison, Hasty, Helton, Kirby, Lail, Lambert, Melton, Moon, Samples and Wright voted NO. Only Commissioner Murrell and Commissioner Folts voted for it. Commissioners voting on important issues without any information, other than directions from the political machine, are the reason this County is in a mess. Hopefully, our Commissioners will begin to think for themselves, before it is too late. Another
zoning
fiasco
At the Blount County Commission Agenda meeting,
citizen Judy Dixon made
an impassioned plea for some justice in her zoning
dispute with the
Sheriff.
Dixon's home once backed on a pleasant open field,
zoned
"Surburbanizing", a residential zoning designation.
Then, out of
nowhere, without obtaining the required building,
zoning, grading or
environmental approvals, the Blount County Sheriff
build a "driving
track" on the
land. Before they knew what happened, the Dixons
were being treated
to flashing lights, squealing tires, sirens and
grenades, sometimes
late at night.
Then to maximize the disruption to the
Dixons
quiet retirement, the Sheriff invited 30 other
agencies, from as far
away as Kingston, to use the facility. Now
the Sheriff has applied for a rezoning of the land
to "Regional", which
apparently will enable the Sheriff to invite his
friends from all over
the state and region to come use the Blount County
taxpayer-funded
facility. Meanwhile, the Dixons and their neighbors
suffer. This is one
of many cases where persons connected to the
political machine have
made a mockery of the county permitting and zoning
regulations. If the
'connected few' can ignore our zoning and permit
regualtions, what good
are they? |
Tonya
Burchfield
Brad
Harrison
Scott
Helton
Gerald
Kirby