I’ve lived in Chattanooga my whole life. I’ve seen this city change in more ways than I can count. Some of those changes have made me proud. But what I’m seeing out of City Hall lately makes me shake my head.
Since 2021, the city budget has jumped from $255 million to $345 million. That’s a $90 million increase in just four years. And now the mayor wants to raise property taxes by 44 cents, saying inflation is the reason. I may be older, but I’m not stupid. Prices have gone up, sure, but not enough to explain a 35 percent increase in spending.
The city is spending more because it chooses to, not because it has to.
And when regular folks like me question it, we get told we don’t understand how it works. What I understand is how to live within my means. I’ve done it for decades. City Hall should try it.
What really bothers me, though, is the attitude from the mayor. He recently told council members he’d “support our friends,” meaning those who back his tax increase. And he made it clear that those who don’t might get left behind when it comes to things like paving and infrastructure. That’s not leadership. That’s a threat.
We had a county commissioner get in serious legal trouble for something similar not that long ago. Just because you are a mayor and can hide behind politics doesn’t make that kind of behavior acceptable.
I’m not against paying more taxes when they’re needed. But I am against wasteful spending and political games. The city keeps asking for more, and regular folks keep getting less in return. It’s not right, and it’s not sustainable.
I’ve got kids and grandkids growing up in this city. They deserve a government that tells the truth, spends wisely and serves everybody—not just the ones who play along.
Enough is enough. It’s time for the mayor and the City Council to get serious about accountability. Inflation didn’t cause this mess. City Hall did.
Harold Parker
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I ran for City Council in 1990. The winner in this district took a pledge I made on education and made it his. What was put forth was suggestion that audits should happen across city departments to lower costs so that education could get the funding it needed. Then public schools merged into the current county-wide system.
The point here is administrative salaries are outsized to overcompensate those in executive roles in departments while those that do the jobs the public sees and get results from are “normal wages.” One could extract from that with an audit of garbage service on the street I live that the drivers are not well trained or supervised with regular missing of service.
The point here is administrative costs are high, too many leaders and not enough workers. As one writer points out, 35 percent city budget increases way outpace cost of living adjustments.
We had a dead ash tree on Right of Way cut this July. I turned that in Aug. 15 last year. My step-daughters and sons-in-law have had to deal with glacial pace of back and forth on commercial and residential construction that borders on purposeful non delivery of service. So what I see long term is that the executive in this city could do better to reign in department administrations for high reward for not a lot of work accomplished. Rank and file of all departments, not just police and fire, can share this truth.
It’s funny, as we’ve had a UPS account for 30 years, we see in summer this route get audited. I can tell the folks from management, they suit up, get drenched with sweat, and do the deed to better know what drivers deliver and put up with.
My take is if one is going to run the system, that person needs to know it and render administrative service at fair market cost. This city should be able to do that and find within current tax intake the funds to pay fire and police new hires fair market wages.
Prentice Hicks