G’town budget plan draws opposition
Proposed 44.5-cent tax hike, program cuts bother some
As the Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen prepares for public hearings Monday on the suburb’s budget and property tax ordinances, several groups are mobilizing backers or raising questions about the financial plans.
Arts groups want to know why their funding was cut. Supporters of the Bobby Lanier Farm Park, which had a well-attend- ed opening of its farmers market on Thursday, question slicing the $1.2 million previously earmarked for improvements in the capital budget. A former alderman thinks the proposed 44.5-cent hike in the property tax rate is too much in a tough economy, and an unsuccessful candidate for alderman last year characterizes the financial plan as “a mess.”
“When either an elected body or an elected administration comes to the voters and says, ‘ We need this tax increase,’ then the burden is upon them to justify it,” said Kyle Wiggins, an unsuccessful candidate for Germantown alderman last year. “So far, in reviewing that budget, ... they haven’t done that.
“While raising my taxes 30 percent, they are cutting the very quality-of-life services that attracted me and my family to Germantown.”
Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy’s administration is proposing the 44.5-cent increase to support the budget. Part of that — 9.5 cents — is necessary because of lower property values resulting from reappraisal. But the remaining 35 cents covers the budget during a five-year planning span. That’s the kind of increase former alderman Mark Billingsley thinks is tough on residents during a sluggish economy. He was on the board in 2011 when the suburb approved its last property tax increase — a minimal 6 cents — and thinks city officials should taken another short-term look.
“There has not been a significant economic positive change since the previous (tax increase),” Billingsley said. “I would just say it is too much at one time. If they want to con- sider another modest increase to somewhat put a Band-Aid on until we know where we are going, I think that would be very thoughtful.”
Despite the increase, there are cuts to some programs. Supporters of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company are expected to fight for return of their $70,000 in funding cut from the budget. A proposal by Alderman Rocky Janda already is included to give GHS-TV $50,000 to start the fiscal year in July, and if supporters raise matching funds by January, provide the Germantown High
School station with another $50,000. That would still fall short of the estimated $190,000 supporters believe is necessary for the station.
None of this property tax increase is earmarked for the potential city schools. Germantown officials believe they can operate the municipal schools with the half-cent increase in the local option sales tax approved by voters last summer.
City Administrator Patrick Lawton said he met with six neighborhood groups and one civic organization, and the estimated 200 people in those meetings seemed comfortable with the budget.
“There were no comments about the proposed 44.5 cent tax increase,” Lawton said. “They look at what we are doing. They understand it. (I’m) not getting any feedback one way or the other on the tax increase.”
He said most of the discussion in those meetings dealt with the schools. City leaders are consciously separating the property tax increase from required language in the July 16 referendum for municipal schools that mentions the need for a local investment equal to 15 cents on the property tax rate. Germantown officials believe they will cover that requirement from the half-cent sales tax increase without a bump in property taxes.
Lawton said the only group he is hearing from about the budget is the Shakespeare group, who even suggested the city could simply round the tax increase to 45 cents. But Lawton noted there are no guarantees the additional revenues would go to the theatrical group and the board could decide the city had other priorities to fund with that money.