Baughn: Let’s lower the property tax rate

The future of Oak Ridge is entirely dependent upon our ability to attract new residents and businesses. To do that, we must first acknowledge an unspoken truth: Outsiders view Oak Ridge as being too expensive. We must work to change that. Oak Ridge must become competitive.

Why do people say that it costs so much to live and work in Oak Ridge? What I hear is that our leases, properties, gas, and even our groceries, all cost more than our neighboring communities. I haven’t verified that to be the case, but those are things that the city government can’t (and shouldn’t) control.

There is one definitive thing, however, that our city can control, and it is substantial enough to change both the outflow and inflow of residents and businesses.

Of the surrounding communities, Roane, Anderson, Knox, Loudon, and Blount, Oak Ridge has the second highest property tax rate at 4.74 percent. Like it or not, this one fact deters many people from ever looking at Oak Ridge as an option.

What would it take to be No. 7? Assuming an unchanged Anderson County rate of 2.35 percent, the Oak Ridge rate would need to drop from 2.39 percent to 1.72 percent. This would require a reduction in our annual budget of roughly $6 million. I believe that, over the next two to four years, this is an achievable goal, and I believe it can be done without sacrificing essential services or our quality of life.

The city’s Personnel Advisory Board, of which I am a member, is charged with recommending adjustments to the city Personnel Plan. Many of these policies have not changed in over 20 years. We recently looked at our injury leave policy and realized that it greatly exceeded both industry and federal standards. An adjustment to this one policy yielded a potential annual savings of nearly $70,000. As we continue to review and revise these policies, we could see additional annual savings in the range of $100,000-$500,000.

Rather than eliminate services, we could shift them to fee-based services. We enjoy a myriad of perks, but one example would be annual brush and trash pickup. If shifted to a fee-based system, yearly cost savings of this one line item would be $42,000.

As council member Ellen Smith and others have urged, we should combine duplicated departments that exist on both the city and school sides. If we were to combine just the technology and maintenance resources, there’s no telling how much we could save. We won’t know, though, until we dig in and do the work that it takes to find out.

We could also look at consolidating departments within the city. If the Senior Center were moved into the Civic Center, which has its own staff, we could save the nearly $300,000 per year that that program costs.

Council member Chuck Hope has suggested shifting the entire Secret City Festival project over to a stand-alone, nonprofit organization. That would save us the $50,000 blank check that the city writes every year, as well as an untold fortune in city staff hours.

Combined, the city and schools see an annual staff turnover rate of about 5 percent. If we chose to not back-fill those positions and instead implemented policies and processes to better use existing staff, we could save $3.1 million and would be halfway to our goal.

Given the drop in enrollment at our schools, the city manager has suggested that we reduce our maintenance-of-effort obligation next year. Based on the school administration’s current enrollment projections, that could save us another $265,000.

Cutting the Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau contracts by 15 percent could save $100,000. Foregoing a raise for city staff for a single year produces infinite annual savings.

I could go on, but there’s one other obvious beneficiary in all of this that I have yet to mention. You should have recently received your city tax notice. The reduction I am proposing comes out to about 28 percent. Go calculate what that would put back in your pocket and tell me it doesn’t get you excited about the possibilities.

Achieving optimal efficiency of our most valuable resources, time, and money, is imperative to progress. Though not always immediately achievable, there is always a better way. However, unlike in our home and business lives, government rarely seeks that way until mandated by the taxpayer.

It’s not going to happen overnight. But it will never happen if we don’t, as a city, boldly declare that we will do it. So let’s do it. Let’s aim to be more competitive. Let’s shoot for 7th place!

Trina Baughn is a candidate for Oak Ridge City Council in the Aug. 2 special election.