Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

News: Ear to the Ground

AG Says Backup Foul Up

Knox County dodged a bullet when the wheel tax escaped a referendum recall. If the wheel tax had been repealed in November, county officials were prepared to send out a supplemental bill as County Commission voted to raise property taxes to replace the wheel tax revenue.

A similar situation has arisen in Dickson County, but an attorney general’s opinion surfaced that says raising the county property tax rate after the first Monday in October is illegal. County commissions can set the rate after July 1, and can even change it, but property taxes become due the first Monday in October, says the AG opinion. Therefore, the tax rate cannot be changed after the first Monday in October.

If the wheel tax had been repealed in the November election, Knox County Commission would appear to have been raising property taxes well after the deadline. If the wheel tax had been recalled and the new property tax rate ruled null and void, half the fiscal year would have passed with a budget badly out of kilter.

Dickson County has a referendum to repeal a $20 wheel tax in January, and County Commission has been notified that raising the property tax is not an option.

Annex Revenue Awry

Knoxville is suing the Department of Revenue to try and get back the money from a $2 million mistake—an annexation gone awry.

Former mayor Victor Ashe gave developer Tim Graham $2 million to drop his opposition to city efforts to annex Crown Point, a shopping center on Clinton Highway. Ashe told City Council there would be a quick payback in sales tax revenue going forward.

Oops. The state Attorney General ruled that the annexation date that matters is after passage of the growth plan, thus the sales tax inures to the county for the next 15 years, not the city. (The city had begun trying to annex the property in 1995 before the growth plan was passed, but the AG says that doesn’t matter. It took effect when the deal was struck in 2003, after the agreement with the county.)

New mayor Bill Haslam’s law department is suing the Department of Revenue to try and get a ruling that will overturn the AG opinion. In the meantime, the Department of Revenue does what the AG tells it, and sales tax collections are going to the county.

Greenways Should Pick Up

With the transition between city administrations, the Knoxville greenway program skipped a beat. A planned six miles of greenways for this year resulted in about a half-mile of construction, for a variety of reasons, and construction will resume in the spring.

Mayor Haslam has designated a deputy in the Public Service Department to have operational control, and greenway advocates think the program will go forward now at a quicker pace. The incoming mayor had other priorities (a budget deficit and putting a management team in place), and the steady progress of greenways across the city stalled.

Naifeh Vote Remembered

State Rep. Doug Overby, R-Maryville, ran for a position on the Legislature’s fiscal review committee last week, but to the surprise of many observers, he was defeated. Seems many of his colleagues, and most of the conservative freshman members, remember that Overby was one of the Naifeh 11.

In the next organizational meeting after House speaker Jimmy Naifeh put his infamous income tax bill up for a vote, the Republican caucus put up one of its members as an alternative speaker. Overby joined 10 other Republican House members in voting for Naifeh instead of Rep. Diane Black. One freshman said caucus members felt there is no reason to reward one of its members who votes with Democrats.

Rep. Bill Dunn and Rep. Harry Brooks, both Knox County members, were elected to fiscal review, a high profile committee that investigates state spending.

Of the Naifeh 11, two have retired and one was defeated in a primary. None of the rest have been elected to a leadership post by the Republican caucus.

Roddy Wants Calm Streets

In our recent report on City Council spending on community grants, Councilwoman Marilyn Roddy was the only member who had not spent any money. Roddy has since designated the entire $10,000 in her discretionary account to traffic calming in neighborhoods, a subject in which she has shown a particular interest.

Roddy’s $10,000 will be added to $250,000 from the city budget and $500 from Councilman Bob Becker’s “202 funds” for a total of $260,500 to slow down traffic in neighborhoods. The money has been deposited in the city’s capital account and, if not spent by July 1, 2005, it will be rolled over to continue the project.

The funds will be used to implement the recommendations of a City Council committee on traffic calming that included Roddy, Councilman Joe Bailey and Councilwoman Barbara Pelot. The committee report is available on the city’s website.