n the past weeks, various local press and media outlets have reported that Chattanooga's mayor and City Council are floating a proposal to increase property taxes in order to deal with budget shortfalls. Now the mayor would have us believe that the city's fiscal problems are the result of new demands on services due to 'growth.' Wouldn't 'growth' actually mean more taxpayers who can pay for those increased demands? The 'reporting' - be it from newspaper, radio, television, or internet news outlets - is all basically the same in that these organizations rarely do little more than repeat sound-bites given by city officials about how the budget has been 'cut to the bone,' is 'barebones,' that the city is operating 'on a shoestring.' Is any of that actually true? I'm not accusing anyone of being disingenuous, but how do we know they're telling the truth?

I've always been taught to 'trust, but verify.' Isn't that the job of the press and media, to verify? These days it seems that news organizations often act more as the propaganda arm of an ever-growing government than as the proverbial watchdog they once claimed to be.

Is our city government behaving like local and state governments throughout the U.S. that, when spending outpaces tax receipts, often present the taxpaying citizens with a false choice between tax increases on the one hand, and, on the other, drastic reductions in the most fundamental services and responsibilities of government? If we are to believe the mayor and City Council members, there are absolutely zero non-essential personnel, departments or programs now funded in the city budget; that the city must either raise taxes or cut back on garbage collection, police and first responders. Really? For example, have arts programs been eliminated? I would submit that those are nice to have in good times, but their funding is not an essential function of government. Civilized society can indeed exist without taxpayer-funded abstract sculptures in public places. Have non-essential personnel been put on unpaid leave? Has a moratorium been placed on official travel? What about pay, benefits and pensions for city employees and retirees? Private-sector companies in this area and around the country have had to make difficult cuts in those areas in order to survive the tough economic times.

Since, to my knowledge, no enterprising local journalist has gone through the current and proposed revised budget and reported on where the cuts have been made and where the waste remains, I have a challenge for Mayor Littlefield and the City Council: post the entire, detailed, revised budget alongside the current operating budget online for 5 business days before voting on it or any tax increases. Let the taxpayers see it for themselves and make their opinions known to their elected public servants, if they are so inclined.

Sam Deaton
North Chattanooga