Approximately half of Hamilton County residents reside in Chattanooga. That half pays double property tax for that great privilege. Chattanooga's city tax dollars fund the McKamey Animal Shelter and their county taxes supply more than half of the funds provided for a Humane Society that does not serve them.
The complexity and cost of care required to collect stray cats and dogs and to rescue or subdue dangerous animals requires significant funding.
Despite efforts by current and previous HES staff and volunteers, the Humane Society (HES) facility remains in poor structural condition. The climate control and ventilation issues are appalling. The cause is not a lack of concern on the part of those who work there, but a lack of funding. The people working there love animals. Pictures shown in the media demonstrate conditions unchanged from years ago. In my younger days, I volunteered at the HES shelter and well recall the same photographed conditions.
Now what is the solution? Should the County Commissioners budget more for animal upkeep? That would mean more county tax dollars (paid by city residents) will go to pay for the upkeep of stray animals collected from the streets of the unincorporated parts of the county and other cities in Hamilton County. If this is the solution chosen, there will be no additional services for Chattanooga residents. Chattanoogans built a new facility for the care of stray Chattanooga animals and contracts with a fine non-profit group to run it properly. It is asking too much to require city residents to fully fund one facility that services them and half fund repair and the operation of another facility that provides them with no services.
All of Hamilton County needs and requires animal control services. Duplication of facilities is wasteful and frankly illogical. Animal services should be funded via one central source that requires everyone in Hamilton County to bear the cost one time annually. The best way to accomplish this would be for McKamey's contract to be solely funded from everyone’s county taxes. Everyone would fund it, everyone could receive services, and most importantly animal conditions would improve countywide.
To individually contract with McKamey and parcel cost proportionally to every Hamilton County municipality would not be fair, because the county would still fund the portion for the unincorporated areas. That scenario takes us back to double payments by city residents to subsidize unincorporated animal services via their county taxes.
To make progress on this issue, politicians will need to drop their territorial boundaries and do the right thing. Let's give that a try.
Deborah Scott