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Seven Days

Wednesday, May 22
The juxtaposition of stories in the New-Sentinel was laced with irony. State tax reform fails again in Nashville; Tennessee ranks 47th among the 50 states in spending on education; and County Executive Tommy Schumpert will recommend no property tax increase. Oh, well. Who cares, really?

Thursday, May 23
A national study shows Tennessee ranks first among the states in medical insurance coverage for children, meaning our kids may turn out dumb but they're at least healthy.

Friday, May 24
Loren Crabtree, the UT vice president and provost, is quoted as saying the most recent investigation by the Southeastern Conference of alleged NCAA violations of athletes' academic performance was "unnecessary," thereby fully qualifying him for the post of chancellor of the Knoxville campus.

Saturday, May 25
Norris Dam State Park reopens after a five-month closing by the state for budgetary reasons. Better hurry out there before it's closed again. The state's budget deficit is growing by leaps and bounds.

Monday, May 27
Lynyrd Skynyrd gives a free concert at Thompson-Boling Arena. Yeah, right. Who's gonna believe that? Only their Bird is Free.

Tuesday, May 28
It's revealed that UT has no football coach among the top 10 all-time selections by an online publications. Robert Neyland not only rolls over in his grave, his ghost crashes computer hard drives from coast to coast.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Yes, that is one of the picturesque transom at the old L&N train station, which opened in 1905 and welcomed its final train passengers in 1970. Renovated for the World's Fair in 1982, it now houses the Jockey Club restaurant and various offices. Bob Thompson was first to recognize the Victorian stylings on the transom, and his sharp eyes will soon be focused on Living Enlightenment: A Call for Evolution Beyond Ego, of which Deepak Chopra says "If you want to become intimate with the Unknown, with That which was ever known to you, this book will help you start your journey." Bon voyage, Bob. Call us when you get there.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Monday, June 3
5 p.m.
Andrew Johnson Bldg.
Board Room, 1st floor
912 South Gay St.
Work session.

KNOX COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
Wednesday, June 5
5 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main Ave.
Regular monthly meeting.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR COMMUNITY AND JUSTICE
Thursday, June 6
5:30 - 7 p.m.
UT College of Law
Room 132
1500 Cumberland Ave.
Town meeting with forum and panel discussion: "When Hate Is Unchallenged."

Popping a Wheelie?
A vehicle 'privilege' tax for the county is up in the air

Recent discussion of the possible establishment of an annual privilege tax on motor vehicle registration in Knox County has abated this week, with proponents and opponents taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the Legislature and its wrestling match over tax reform.

Limbo on revenue and tax issues trickles down from the state to local governments just as surely as the anxiety over what to do if the state's projected budget shortfall produces massive cuts in state support of schools and/or reductions in the sales tax shares the state returns to cities and counties.

Over the past several weeks, the Knox County Education Association has been kicking around the idea of pushing for a vehicle privilege or "wheel" tax on every car and truck registered in the county each year. A $25 tax would produce a little less than $10 million locally, and school employees would want a large share of the proceeds dedicated to education.

There was talk of a petition drive by educators to put such a tax on ballots here as a referendum item in the August or November elections, but August has been all but ruled out because school is out until then, and the county's law director, Mike Moyers, believes the law enabling such a privilege tax does not allow for referendum petitions until the County Commission approves a resolution calling for the tax and for a referendum vote on it.

County commissioners say they have not been approached directly by anyone seeking a wheel tax referendum, and KCEA President Paula Brown says the whole issue is still "being investigated." She says the wheel tax came under consideration in the face of the potential for drastic state fund reductions and the notion that "the community is not comfortable with increasing the property tax or the sales tax" to meet school needs.

Besides the schools, Brown says, "We feel like we are always competing for funds with other county departments," the Sheriff's Department for instance, and if the teachers decide to ask Commission for a referendum resolution on a wheel tax, she says, "We're looking at ways to spread [the revenue] out among other county employees."

For their part, commissioners who are not opposed outright to such a referendum have put the idea on hold. Frank Leuthold, who has indicated he might support a referendum, and Wanda Moody, who has followed the KCEA's progress on the issue with a favorable eye, both say they haven't been asked to initiate a wheel tax resolution and wouldn't consider doing so without a formal request.

John Griess, who was also counted as a supporter, says, "I don't see any reason to push for it. The [school] people seem satisfied with the [county] budget."

Commissioner Griess concedes that satisfaction could drain away rapidly with reductions in state funding and resultant cuts, and Commissioner John Schmid, who says he has "no problem with a referendum," also says the state's position is crucial. Commissioner David Collins says no such wheel tax should be enacted without a referendum, and that if a tax proposition can be designed and dedicated to suit him, he'd probably support sending it to the public. Commissioner Mark Cawood says, "Right now I'm against it...but I'll keep an open mind on it." He, too, nods to the state revenue uncertainty.

Griess and Collins both say they feel the more pressing need is to find a way to get a half-cent sales tax increase enacted by referendum before state tax reform takes the form of eliminating local-option sales taxes in favor of a uniform statewide sales tax rate. The state is expected to make up for the local-option losses up to the present legal maximum, but since Knox County's tax is a half-cent below that maximum, the county would stand to lose that much—$32 million, half of which would go to schools—under a uniform tax equalization process.

Though wheel taxes are controversial, and as Cawood says, "The opposition is bitter," 48 of the state's 92 counties now collect them, in amounts ranging from Hardin County's $11 to Shelby County's $70, with the average falling in the $25 range. Most people pay them, but because a state law requirement that they buy their license tags either where they live or where they work is virtually unenforceable, some people go out of their way to register their vehicles in counties without a wheel tax.

Even with existing wheel taxes, vehicle registration in most Tennessee counties is a bargain at $24 plus the wheel tax amount, compared with costs in surrounding states that impose statewide annual taxes based on the worth of each vehicle to be registered.

A legislative initiative sponsored by Sen. Ben Atchley of Knoxville to apply a motor vehicle tax statewide passed the Senate last year but was not brought to a House vote. If enacted—as part of any tax substitution program that did not include an income tax—the Atchley proposal would raise more than $200 million a year by placing a 1 percent tax on vehicle value, an average computed at about $50 per car or truck, which would be added to regular registration costs.

The possibility that such a statewide tax might be resurrected as part of any tax "reform" compromise has also put a damper on wheel tax initiatives this year. So the Legislature's stuttering and stammering, and all the "possibilities" that its inaction leaves on the table, have kept counties such as Knox unable to take any meaningful action to shore up potential revenue leaks. The wheel tax just isn't rolling. And if the ultimate legislative formula leaves no major holes in the revenue route, it probably won't.

—Barry Henderson