If a Frog Had Wings

If only there were someone at the City of Savannah or in Hardin County Government who could read and understand the Tennessee Code. If only there wasn’t the ever present distrust and hostility between these two governing bodies. But then again there is my favorite, that If a Frog Had Wings thing, too.

When it comes to the Tennessee River Resort District (TRRD) designation, what we have is a failure to communicate and it may very well cost Hardin County taxpayers $443,000 a year in slam dunk revenue. Sad but true.

The lack of communication is between the elected officials of the City of Savannah and the Hardin County Commission. When it comes to cooperation and working together, it appears as if the lights are on, but no one is at home, if you know what I mean.

But then again our current county officials, adopting the moto of the former chief executive officer, are not focusing on the future or the present, either. One has to wonder what these folks are looking at, or if they even have their eyes open at all.

Had the City of Savannah NOT elected to accept the TRRD status, Hardin County would have received an addition $443,000 in additional state-shared sales tax revenue in addition to the estimated $213,000 they are projected to receive by the election of the TRRD status.

Let’s see, that would be $656,000, a year based on FY 2005 sales tax revenues, instead of $213,000 in additional revenue for the County, if the City of Savannah was not a separate TRRD, for which they are projected to lose $16,600 the first year. Does that make a lot of sense?

The City of Savannah would continue to receive it’s estimated $443,000 per year in state-shared sales tax revenue, without the TRRD.

The published rational for the City of Savannah to elect TRRD status is that in the future the City will make up the current projected losses with increased sales tax revenue and possibly additional revenue from the sale of liquor by the drink.

Although Savannah is a separate corporate municipality, it is also my county seat and the administrative center for theCounty and should be a source of pride (and jobs) for Savannah.

But then again, based on the experience of the city in their dealings with the county on the 1997 one-cent sales tax increase, earmarked for education, one can understand their reluctance to trust the county to keep their end of any agreement that might have be made.

Again, sad but true.

Respectfully submitted for your consideration.