Oak Ridge Today

Council members clash over Baughn’s budget-cutting proposals

Posted at
By 55 Comments

Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

Charlie Hensley

Charlie Hensley

Several Oak Ridge City Council members clashed on Monday as they debated a few last-minute proposals to reduce city spending in some areas and increase it in others.

Most of the debate centered on proposals submitted by Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn. She asked the City Council to consider nine budget-cutting proposals and consider selling the Centennial Golf Course and the property used by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, among other things.

Baughn said she represents the citizens of Oak Ridge and is trying to find the highest and best use of city-owned property. She has previously said she would like to lower the property tax rate and has advocated for a more limited government. [Read more…]

Guest column: Strategizing a path to prosperity

Posted at
By 25 Comments

Trina Baughn

Trina Baughn

The problem

This month, the Oak Ridge City Council will establish your property tax rate for 2014 via the approval of our annual city budget. And though it appears that taxes will remain flat, our excessive spending levels are unsustainable and continue to hinder our ability to compete with surrounding communities.

In spite of all the new developments happening as of late, if council approves the budget as proposed, residents and businesses will continue to feel the financial crunch for quite some time. Not only will we retain one of the highest property tax rates in the state, but we’ll also retain one of the largest per capita debt levels in the region. (At nearly $7,000 per person, we have more than four times that of Knox County residents and more than seven times that of Knoxville residents). A dozen more chicken places and grocery store relocations won’t make a dent in the average Oak Ridger’s bills.

If we are to make any kind of progress, we need a strategy that aims to increase revenue while reducing expenditures. This column will focus on increasing our revenue base. I will address budgetary inefficiencies and waste in a follow-up piece next week. [Read more…]

Anderson County officials discuss budget Monday evening

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Terry Frank

Terry Frank

Spending requests have exceeded expected revenues by more than $4 million, mostly because of a proposal to hire more jailers, and Anderson County officials will discuss the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 during a Monday evening workshop.

Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and Budget Director Chris Phillips have said they plan to present a balanced budget that does not raise taxes but still provides core services.

County officials have said projected revenues are down slightly, or about 98 percent of what they are in the current fiscal year. There has been a slight increase in property assessments, but sales and business tax revenues are projected to be down. [Read more…]

Possible TVA sale a bad idea, president’s budget fails on entitlements, Republican lawmakers say

Posted at
By 2 Comments

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Senator Bob Corker

Bob Corker

Republican lawmakers from Tennessee were critical of the budget proposal released by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, saying it was overdue and failed to responsibly address unsustainable spending on entitlement programs.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said a proposal to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority could cost taxpayers money.

“This is one more bad idea in a budget full of bad ideas,” Alexander said. “There is today no federal taxpayer subsidy for TVA, period. There is by law no federal taxpayer liability for TVA debt. And after deducting its debt, selling TVA would probably cost taxpayers money.” [Read more…]

Alexander supports balanced budget amendment to U.S. Constitution

Posted at
By 3 Comments

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on Wednesday announced he will be an original cosponsor of a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“For eight years as governor, I balanced Tennessee’s budget, and other states balance their budgets—I don’t see why Washington can’t do the same,” said Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

The second-term senator said the federal government is borrowing 42 cents of every dollar it spends, and that’s money the country dosen’t have.

[Read more…]

Guest column: Does Oak Ridge have a revenue or spending problem?

Posted at
By 17 Comments

We here in Oak Ridge are repeatedly told that we do not have a debt problem, we have a revenue problem. All of our issues can be solved simply by increasing our revenue. Translation: The city needs more of your money.

The truth is, revenues aren’t down. They are actually up by $55 million for the last 10 years.

The data shows that our root problem is not revenue-based but spending-based. Oak Ridge is the single highest taxed full-service city in the state. We have priced ourselves out of consideration, sight unseen, to new residents and businesses. Every year for the last decade, we have knowingly budgeted to spend more than we bring in (see tables below). How do we make up the self-created deficit every year? Simple. We incur debt, and we deplete reserves.

Over the last decade, over 21 million of your tax dollars have been spent in the name of economic and community development. This is in addition to the dozens of tax breaks that we’ve given to select businesses. Every way that there is to throw money at our problems, we have done it.

Yes, we have some recent developments that we can celebrate. But we need to be realistic about their impact. For each new store, how many have quietly closed up shop and left town? And how many years before we see the projected new revenues?

It is time for a serious strategy change. We cannot possibly expect to attract new residents and new businesses as long as the very people who live here say that they can no longer afford to stay. If we are to achieve any substantial progress, we have to become competitive. It is time to stop throwing money at our problems. There is only one way that city council can truly improve our economy and that is by leveling the playing field with our competitors by lowering our property tax rate, lowering our debt, and lowering our spending.

 

Ten Year Snapshot

2002

2012

Total Revenues

$118M

$173M

Total Expenditures

$135M

$179M

Total Debt

$104M

$186


City of Oak Ridge Budgeted Revenue and Expenditures

 

Revenues

Expenditures

2002

$118M

$135M

2003

$120M

$152M

2004

$126M

$134M

2005

$126M

$134M

2006

$131M

$177M

2007

$137M

$184M

2008

$145M

$184M

2009

$164M

$183M

2010

$172M

$179M

2011

$173M

$179M

2012

$173M

$179M

Source: City of Oak Ridge Final Budget for years 2002-2012

http://www.oakridgetenn.org/department/Finance/content.aspx?article=1853