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Citizens
for Better Government
Blount County Tennessee
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Mayor and Commission want to
impose a 10% tax increase when more than 10% are unemployed
The latest budget pronouncements from Mayor Cunningham and his allies on the Commission lead us to wonder whether they have lost all touch with financial reality. Are they listening to the people?
The General Fund budget
has been increasing at 2.5 times the rate of inflation for the last five years.
They are proposing to increase the General Fund budget again.
Is that what the people want?
They took a meat cleaver to the school budget,
eliminating 25 teaching positions. Then, they budgeted nearly one
million dollars for sheriff’s cars, that every thinking person in this
County knows he does not need.
Is that what the people want?
They are proposing to
fund the budget by emptying nearly every reserve fund we have. Their
alternative is to raise taxes 10%, when 10% of our citizens are unemployed, and
thousands more are struggling. A tax increase under these circumstances is uncaring
and unconscionable.
Is that what the people want?
They are proposing to decimate the bond reserve fund, by
taking $7 million from it to continue construction on another school. They are betting
that they can get a QSCB bond in December, and then pay the money back. But,
last year, only half of the counties that applied for these bonds actually got
any money. What if their bet doesn’t pay off and they don’t get
the money? Then, in December, we will have to stop construction and prepare
a massive new bond offering. We will need $46 million for the debt balloon
payment, $5 million to terminate two of our five costly swaps, $7 million to
cover the spending on the school, another $6 million to finish the school, and
at least $1 million for bond fees, for a grand total of $65 million. All
with a bond reserve fund that you have decimated. In an era when California
and Greece are having trouble borrowing money, what makes them think that
Blount County will be able to?
This is not fiscal
discipline, this is fiscal fantasy.
Is that what they think the people really want?