Roy Exum: Mr. Siedlecki, Sit Down!

  • Friday, July 29, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

This is a personal thing but one of my pet peeves is the little advertising stickers I sometimes find on the top of the front page of my newspaper. An editor at the newspaper has already determined a bit of news he or she feels I should read. And then the sticker covers it up so I have to peel it off before I can read “All the news that is fit to print.”

As I groveled over my Thursday sticker, it wasn’t lost on me that the sticker itself was a political ad for Mark Siedlecki, who has about as much business being on next week’s ballot for Hamilton County Tax Assessor as a bowling ball does at a tennis match. With virtually no name recognition, no political or practical experience, and aligned with the increasingly unpopular Democratic Party, highly-respected Hamilton County Commissioner Marty Haynes is expected to win the retiring Bill Bennett’s seat in an avalanche – not just a landslide.

The ill-advised Siedlecki is running as hard as he can by advocating a tax freeze for senior citizens when – in fact – that is so off the charts it is downright embarrassing. It is impossible under state law for him as a tax assessor to have anything to do with it. That’s right; the tax assessor cannot raise or lower taxes, much less freeze them. That’s the County Commission’s job.

A far greater truth (you’ll love this) is that Siedlecki doesn’t want seniors -- or taxpayers any younger -- in Hamilton County to know every single one of us is paying LESS county taxes right now than we were in 2007. If the seemingly-inept challenger dared to look, he would find he paid the county $1,069 in 2007 but last year paid $990. (This is due to the massive growth of homes in East Brainerd and Ooltewah.)

Here’s your Einstein moment (and why you will be a blithering idiot if you don’t vote for Marty Haynes.) If Hamilton County had frozen senior citizens’ taxes in 2007, as some other counties in the state did, any senior citizens would, in fact, be forced to pay more in Hamilton County taxes this year than non-seniors. Siedlecki’s a self-induced victim of stinkin’ thinkin’. And, by gumbo, it certainly takes any steam out of his bold campaign promise: “I will make it a priority to protect our elderly residents and keep them in their homes.” Puh-leeze!

A statewide referendum in 2006 gave cities and municipalities the right to freeze taxes on senior citizens but, since then, only 23 of Tennessee’s 95 counties have done so. Why? Because it has been proven to be an idiotic idea.

Instead, here is what has actually happened: Bill Hullander, our wonderful county trustee, did some homework and, of the 24 counties that instituted the senior freeze, a full 18 of those counties were forced to institute a wheel tax the very next year to cover the tax deficit. Hello?  For the record, senior citizens have to pay the wheel tax. How is this working out for our senior citizens, and you?

As Marty Haynes explained to me, there is a state law – the Tennessee Certified Tax Law – that requires property taxes must produce the same amount of income as the previous year. What this means is that it is illegal for local governments to raise revenues by increasing assessments. Any government agency in the state is strictly forbidden to increase taxes for more revenue.

Here is where perhaps this Siedlecki fellow got rattled; since 2007 (after the ‘freeze’ referendum) his personal county taxes have decreased but his city of Chattanooga taxes have increased. When Mark looks at his bill, he’ll see that his city taxes have gone from $746 in 2007 to $827 in 2015.  The rub is he is running for county assessor instead of city assessor. But what is most odd is that Siedlecki’s campaign chairman, City Council member Chris Anderson, has not dared suggest a tax freeze in the city like he and Mark have hatched in desperation for the county. Let’s face it … a senior tax freeze is absolutely nuts. This ain’t smoke-and-mirrors!

Had Siedlecki taken a different path, pointing instead to our horrid wastewater fees, he might have made more of a name for himself. In 2007 his stormwater fee was $36 but in the last eight years it has virtually tripled to $115, as it, quite unguarded, has spread its cancerous and infectious growth all over the county. What would you do if, instead of decreased, your county taxes had tripled?

 County Commissioner Tim Boyd just delivered a 52-page report to the County Commission over the “arrogant” wastewater fiasco and, while Commissioner Greg Beck and County Mayor Jim Coppinger rushed to defend the recently-deceased Cleveland Grimes, a grand guy who was the WWTA director, the two would be among the smallest minority in the county if they tried to defend the bumbling bureaucracy.

But the WWTA is a story that is just beginning to heat up. Today’s lesson is that if you are a senior citizen, Mark Siedlecki is most certainly not your candidate. If you are a registered voter? Double down on the ditto.

royexum@aol.com

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