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Proposed $15 wheel tax hike withdrawn in Hawkins County

Published October 26th, 2009 | 2 Comments

ROGERSVILLE — A proposal that would have increased Hawkins County’s wheel tax by $15 was withdrawn from consideration without any discussion during Monday’s Hawkins County Commission meeting.

Commissioner Carmel Maddox, who introduced the resolution, told the Times-News afterward he withdrew the resolution because he knew it didn’t have enough support to be approved.

A wheel tax increase requires a two-thirds approval by the County Commission — or 14 of the 21 votes — in two consecutive months. Maddox said he doesn’t intend to introduce the resolution at a later date.

A $15 wheel tax hike was projected to raise between $700,000 and $800,000 in new revenue.

Earlier this month, the commission barely approved a 9.5 cent property tax increase mainly to pay the 20 new jailers who have to be hired to staff the county’s new 232-bed jail.

The original tax hike proposal was 22 cents, and one thing commissioners did to whittle the tax hike down was cut the new jailer salary expenditure for 2009-10 from 12 months to nine months, for a savings of $190,000.

Some of the new wheel tax revenue would have been slated to help cover new jailer pay for 12 months next fiscal year. The rest was proposed to beef up the county’s meager reserve fund balance, which is projected to be at only $272,528 by June 30, 2010.

There was quite a bit of discussion during this year’s budget process about increasing the wheel tax instead of property tax to shift some of the tax burden away from property owners. By the time it came up, however, it was too late to impact the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Maddox said that’s why he introduced a wheel tax hike now — to get a head start on next year’s budget.

“We didn’t have enough support to pass it, so there’s no use running something through that you can’t get approved,” Maddox said. “It needs to be in now in order to get it started to help our budget next year. If you wait until budget time, it’s too late for it (a wheel tax hike).

“We’re going to have to do something next year. They’ll have to raise property tax again, probably.”

Sheriff Roger Christian said Monday that in a perfect world he might be able to raise the extra money needed to pay jailers for 12 months next year through compensation for state inmates who will be lodged in the new facility after it opens next month, but that’s not a certainty.

“It didn’t surprise me that the wheel tax proposal was withdrawn because there’s a lot of opposition in the community,” Christian said. “There’s no funding in place yet (to pay the new jailers for 12 months), but obviously there’s going to have to be. There’s no way around it.”

Commissioner Danny Alvis said he was prepared to make an amendment to Monday’s wheel tax increase proposal to decrease this year’s 9.5 cent property tax hike by 4.5 cents to a nickel if the $15 wheel tax hike was approved. He said it was actually an idea mentioned by Commissioner Virgil Mallett, and some other commissioners had a positive reaction to the idea prior to Monday’s meeting.

It was a moot point when the tax hike proposal was withdrawn without discussion, Alvis noted.

“I wish we could have done a wheel tax to start with because there are over 50,000 vehicles in the county, so everybody pays their share instead of laying it all on the shoulders of property owners,” Alvis said. “I don’t like to vote for a tax increase because I have to pay it too, but unfortunately sometimes you have no choice. We were ordered to build that new jail (by a federal judge), and we can’t just leave it sitting empty over there. We’ve got to hire enough jailers to run it.”

There are some commissioners who believe funds to cover the jailers’ pay next year can be found within the budget without increasing taxes again.

“The way the economy is right now and the hardships that citizens are going through, a lot of people don’t have the money to pay the wheel tax we already have,” Commissioner Chris Jones said. “Our citizens can’t afford it. I feel like there are ways in the budget, compromising and sacrificing in every department, that we can overcome this without asking our citizens to fork over more tax money. County government needs to tighten its belt more before its starts asking the people to tighten their belts.”

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And Mr. Maddox should be removed from office and run out of Hawkins County for ever proposing such a stupid idea in this day and time. STUPID man!

ResqLady B | 10/27/2009 - 12:42 PM - ( Comment

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It's outrageous they increased taxes for the jail. If the average family has to live on a budget and spend within their means, why can't government?

Jane Adams | 10/27/2009 - 8:07 AM - ( Comment

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