Roy Exum: An Absurd Last-Ditch Try

  • Wednesday, June 22, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

It is easily the consensus of the Hamilton County taxpayers that the idea of each of our nine County Commissioners having a $100,000 “discretionary fund” is ridiculous. County Mayor Jim Coppinger omitted the $900,000 line item from the budget last summer and when six commissioners then successfully conspired to “steal” the money from our rainy-day fund, we should have impeached some otherwise good people on the spot.

Next Wednesday the 2016-17 budget should be easily approved without the hugely unpopular discretionary spending included but, very sadly, commissioner Tim Boyd is trying a last-ditch effort to revive it and his actions are flagrantly appalling. Tim just leveled discretionary charges on County Mayor Jim Coppinger in an effort so bizarre it makes your eyes run and your nose itch.

Are you kidding me? Among the 10 items Boyd called out of the impending budget are the Humane Educational Society ($620,970.00), the county’s Volunteer Fire Departments ($438,348.00), the Urban League ($50,000) and our READ 20 program ($295,091.00). Anyone who believes the Humane Society, which tends to our county’s lost dogs and cats, is a discretionary item surely suffers from a strain of hoof-and-mouth disease – where you open your mouth and insert your hoof.

This is absolutely ludicrous … all 10 items Tim contested in a misguided news release were approved in full public view by the County Commission – Boyd was there while Coppinger had nothing to do with it -- and to insinuate the County Mayor has his own list of favorites is both unfair and degrading to the entire Hamilton County staff that does it right. Boyd’s desperate ruse stinks to high heavens and he should apologize to his fellow commissioners, if for nothing else, his aggrandizement and unsportsmanlike conduct.

If you’ll look at the proposed budget the first thing you see is no tax increase. Not one person has publicly thanked or acknowledged that Coppinger has avoided a tax increase for six straight years while elsewhere across America tax hikes appear unavoidable. (Privately, I’m for an increase; our schools are visibly desperate, and we are sadly underfunding some other basic services in the county that we shouldn’t.)

The two biggest gainers in the new budget are the Hamilton County Schools, now at $417 million with $10-plus million in new funding, and Public Safety (our Sheriff’s Office and EMTs) with an over $2 million boost. The budget is tight, it always is, but it is universally agreed by those who have combed it time and time again that it is fair, it meets most of our needs, and makes the best use of taxpayer dollars.

The best new addition? The county will open a Veteran’s Service to better care for our heroes who fought for freedom. It is believed there is ample money now available in various state and federal programs but it has gone unspent because no one is in charge of it, thus none of us knows what exactly is available. The county will soon pay the salaries of a veteran who will identify needy veterans and seek a myriad of solutions that they deserve.

Let’s call it what it is: “Discretionary spending” is a dinosaur in modern government. Sure, if you’ll go out to East Ridge you can see signage that some flagpole, for instance, was made possible by Commissioner Tim Boyd but that is pure bunk. Any spending is made possible with taxpayer dollars, not Boyd’s, but it is a ruse to gain favor and assure votes.

Anybody can go online (hamiltoncounty.gov) and see that Boyd used $3,250 of taxpayer money to buy tutus for Chattanooga Ballet’s “Nutcracker” performance. Are you happy with that? You can also see where Boyd delivered $4,399.00 of county taxpayer money to the city of East Ridge (a municipality, mind you) for a flag and flagpole at Camp Jordan. Are you easy with over $4-grand of Hamilton County money buying a flag and flagpole for the city of East Ridge? That is clearly East Ridge government’s responsibility. It is so stupid it defies reason. And it is clearly wrong.

What is right is the fact that any of the nine commissioners, at any time, can request funding for a project in their district that “discretionary money” might have covered in years past. But the beauty of such a request is that it must pass a majority vote rather than meet the whim of one commissioner who wants a bumper sticker or senseless plaque to say, “Hey, look at me!”

When six of the commissioners raided the county’s “rainy day” fund last year, the sad fact is there is no way the $900,000 can ever be replaced. And because of a huge public outcry, the feeling is the days of the “discretionary fund” are long gone.

A Hamilton County commissioner is paid approximately $24,000 a year. There is a mileage/expense addendum of $12,500 that each gets a year and, of course, health insurance is a real perk. I am solidly of the opinion any public servant definitely earns their money but when I hear Tim Boyd didn’t attend any of the four budget workshops that carefully explained this year’s allocations, and then goes off like some loose cannon accusing Mayor Coppinger of $1.5 million in discretionary spending of his own, that is irresponsible and markedly untrue.

Our County Commission – think about this – has no oversight but it should be held accountable to the taxpayers. How on earth could we install and series of checks and balances where the Humane Educational Society, the volunteer fire departments across our county and our marine rescue service will never be questioned for what they and other organizations under the county umbrella do for the common good?

Any other notion is absurd. Unfortunately, we have to wait until 2018 for our true voices to be heard.

royexum@aol.com

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