Comment on this story Wednesday, June 30 • In U.S. District Court, three men convicted of hunting bear illegally in Cherokee National Forest are fined and prohibited from entering national forest or park lands for five years. Bad call. We say take away the hunting rifles, dunk ‘em in honey, and send ‘em back in for a while. Thursday, July 1 • More bad news/good news on the environmental front: The bad news is that Knox and five adjacent counties have been singled out by the EPA for having too much soot in the air. The good news is that the hookers on Magnolia no longer have to blow precious crack funds on lurid black mascara. Friday, July 2 • State Senate 6th District Republican hopefuls Jamie Hagood and Billy Stokes reportedly “get testy” with one another, slinging barbs during a joint interview on the Hal Hill radio show. The candidates later say there was no friction, and that passing references to “my butthead opponent” and “that loopy ginch” were really terms of endearment, of a sort. Saturday, July 3 • According to the News Sentinel, Gov. Phil Bredesen tells a group of graduating high school students how he learned a valuable lesson 30 years ago when his girlfriend (now his wife) gave him a piece of driftwood with the inscription “Life is discovering yourself.” Funny, we learned the same thing when we were in high school. We didn’t use driftwood, though; just some lotion, a couple of tissues, and a dirty magazine. Sunday, July 4 • Independence Day: Thousands of Knoxvillians gather downtown to honor our forefathers, our freedom, and the fine art of blowing shit up in the sky. Monday, July 5 • The Associated Press reports that lottery funds were used to rent pricey apartments for new state lottery officials, despite their already sizable salaries. All of which goes to show that you really don’t have to play to win. Tuesday, July 6 • The News Sentinel reports that our legislators have approved a commemorative license plate honoring country and other traditional musics because they are so abundant here, and because they are indigenous to the state of Tennessee. Next up: state plates commemorating the TDOT highway cone. Knoxville Found 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: The “Doughboy Statute” pictured stands in front of the old Knoxville High School in memoriam of our fallen soldiers from World War I. Ed Anderson called it, and we’re delighted to reward him with a copy of Jesse Lynn Hanley and Nancy DeVille’s Tired of Being Tired. Olivia Newton-John boasts that the book “is indispensable to anyone, like me, with a busy life.” Her tacky clothing line, crummy albums, and mediocre wine must really keep the candle burning at both ends. Congrats, Ed! Meet Your City A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING Tuesday, July 13 • 7 p.m. • City County Building • Main Assembly Room • 400 Main St. Overview of revised Stormwater and Street Ordinance

Wheel Squeal
Opponents of the new wheel tax call for a referendum with an online petition

The fact that Knox County’s pending $30 wheel tax hike sailed through two County Commission votes with little opposition might suggest that voters are unconcerned about having their annual car tax/registration fee doubled.

But Gary Sellers doesn’t think so. The Strawberry Plains resident, a systems administrator at an area electrical supply company, has already collected more than 2,000 signatures (as of July 4) for a petition that would force a wheel tax referendum.

“I’m not in support of any increase, especially if the voters don’t have a chance to vote on it,” Sellers says. “If it goes to a referendum and people vote for it—fine. I’ll shut up. But my experience is that about 90 percent of the people are against it.”

County Commissioners approved the $30 increase on second reading at its June 28 meeting. The hike would bring the county an additional $12 million next year. How those new funds will be allocated is still uncertain, although County Mayor Mike Ragsdale now maintains that the county’s entire budget for fiscal 2004-05 hinges on the new revenue.

The measure passed on both its first and final readings by a count of 16 to 3, with commissioners Mike McMillan, Mike Cawood, and Paul Pinkston casting the dissenting votes in each instance.

The increase will mean an annual per-vehicle cost of $60 for Knox County drivers—$24 for registration, $36 for the wheel tax. (Commissioners instituted the current $6 wheel tax beginning in 2003. The $30 increase takes effect July 12.)

Sellers says he lobbied commissioners to vote against the wheel tax but was dismayed at their apparent unwillingness to listen. “About a week or so before they tried to vote on the second reading, I tried to contact some of them, and couldn’t get any response,” he says. “I called seven of them without any success. They weren’t paying attention to the people.”

Determined, Sellers created a website—www.knoxwheeltax.com—with a prepared statement opposing the wheel tax increase, ready for voters to download, sign, and fax to their commissioners. He believes several hundred of the faxes found their way to commissioners by June 28.

“I saw some sitting on the tables at the meeting,” Sellers says. “I stood up and I told them that I knew they had received the fax, and that this was apparently the only way the voters could be heard. Then I showed them a petition, and told them I was ready to go through with it if they voted in the new wheel tax.”

Sellers says he already had a few signatures by the time he departed the City County Building late that afternoon. Now the fax is gone from his website, and in its place is a petition seeking a public referendum on the tax hike, along with an address to send signed documents.

County officials see little cause for alarm. Ragsdale’s chief of staff Mike Arms says the petition drive constitutes a belated attempt at recalling a decision that has already been aired publicly. “(The tax increase) passed 16 to 3 on two votes, and the budget behind it passed 19 to 0,” he says. “The county has held hearings on the issue, and we’ve received positive input from the community. We’re just going to move forward and let the naysayers do what they have to do.”

To force the referendum, Sellers needs 12,000 signatures, all of which must be verified by the election commission by July 28. Five thousand petitions had been downloaded, he says, and 2,000 had been signed and sent to his post office box as of the holiday weekend.

Why did the wheel tax pass with so little opposition in the first place? Sellers believes the reason has much to do with the timing of Commission meetings, which are usually scheduled for mid-afternoon and sometimes last for several hours.

“They set these meetings for 2 p.m. when people are working,” he says. “A lot of people don’t have time to go up there and voice their opinion.”

Some observers have speculated that the motivation behind the new wheel tax increase stems from a number of potential new county projects. Sellers takes particular exception to a proposed new downtown library, a $45 million project that would receive its first $1 million in funding next year. More than any specific expenditure, however, he says he’s rankled by Commission’s refusal to accede to the will of its constituents.

“I’m against the library issue, and that was a key issue to most of the people I’ve talked to,” Sellers says. “But I’m against the whole process. I consider it to be the equivalent of taxation without representation.”

—Mike Gibson

July 8, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 28 © 2004 Metro Pulse