February 28, 2005

State Senator Still Working to Make It Easier To Raise Your Taxes

Tennessee state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, may have dropped his support for legislation that would have made it easier for county commissions in Tennessee to increase wheel taxes - and stripped citizens of the petition-and-referendum tool they now have to overturn such tax increases, but he hasn't totally given up on trying to help county commissions raise taxes.

Via Mark Rose's blog, we learn of Senate Bill 1056, whose primary sponsor is Ketron. The legislation would authorize the county legislative body of any county experiencing rapid growth to impose a one fourth of 1 percent transfer tax on the sale of real property in the county. This bill would require such a county to adopt a resolution implementing the tax be passed by 2/3 vote of the county legislative body. The bill is backed by the Tennessee Municipal League, which is basically always looking for ways to make it easier for counties and cities to raise taxes. See page six of this document from the TML's website.

While Sen. Ketron's bill - and the House version, HB608 filed by state Rep. John Hood, D-Murfreesboro - seems to establish a very high hurdle for a county commission to enact such a tax increase, it really doesn't. The requirement that the tax-increase resolution "must contain information and data demonstrating the need for this tax due to the rapid growth and showing insufficient revenue to provide infrastructure improvements" is a rather weak requirement - as any clever county commission can cook up some "data" showing whatever they want it to show, and jigger the books to make it look like a county is broke even if it has plenty of revenue. A county commission wishing to justify such a tax increase could merely temporarily re-budget a large portion of its budget to schools, leaving nothing for "infrastructure improvements," pass the resolution imposing the tax, and then reshuffle the budget again.

Sen. Ketron: You were not elected to represent the Tennessee Municipal League and the interests of the Rutherford County Commission, Sen. Ketron. You were elected to represent the people. And people, Sen. Ketron, elect Republicans to hold the line on taxes, not to provide new ways to raise them.