The Natural Way To Fund Our Operating Obligations

When will we accept the natural way to fund our operating obligations — property taxes that are enough to do the job. We now have to pay for the foolish decisions and procrastination of our county government in the past or even today.

The public needs to understand, that the taxes well-off people aren’t paying translate directly into a combination of higher taxes and reduced public services for the vast majority of Hardin County citizens.

County officials could have engendered more support by being up-front. Critics can chastise commissioners for failing to include the public in the decision-making process, in their rush to solve the jail crowding crisis. They deserve any criticism thrown their direction. This is a message that should resonated well with the voting public.

Any reassurance that community leaders are accurately representing the needs and interests of their constituents, has been total lip service.

Why do they do things in secret and wait until it's all done to tell us? They decide, and then they tell people what they're going to get stuck with. This doesn’t send a clear message to community stakeholders that their opinions matter.

Jail opponents can accused the jail planners of concentrating too much on bricks and jail bars and not enough on treatment and prevention programs to keep criminals from re-offending and re-entering the criminal justice system.

The guiding philosophy in criminal justice is to change the lifestyles and behaviors that lead to crime, resulting in fewer arrests, a reduced need for jail beds and a savings to taxpayers. This is a message that has resonated well with the voting public.

Tennessee’s tax system is the third most regressive in the entire Country, requiring low- and middle-income families to pay more of their income in tax than wealthier Tennesseans. In Hardin County it is about 4 times more for the low income families.

I think we can do better and I had rather not force my grandsons and their children to have to pay for the foolish decisions and procrastination of our county government.

Can't you just see, back some time ago in a smoke filled room somewhere in the past it has been decided - Since we own most of the property in Hardin County, we’ll keep the property taxes artificially low and soak the poor folks with sales tax, wheel tax, litigation tax and any other kind of regressive taxes, fees or charges we can, to operate on.

When we get the land prices where we want them and after we have sold all of the land we want to sell, when we get a lot of folks moved here because of our artificially low property taxes, we’ll increase the property taxes and catch up on repairing/replacing our infrastructure that won’t be able to maintain with no more taxes the low taxes will generate or for lack of funds.

Respectfully Submitted