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Tale of Two Counties Slides Available
The slides used in our recent Tale of two Counties
presentation are now available. The presentation shows:
- Who in our county government
is doing a good job at controlling spending, and who is not;
- The county general
fund (Sheriff, Circuit Court Clerk, etc) is growing at nearly twice the
rate of population growth plus inflation, while the school fund and
highway fund have grown at less than population growth plus inflation.
In short, excessive general fund spending is stealing from our schools
and highways;
- Blount county and
Washington county have nearly the same populations, county road miles and
number of county arrests, yet Blount county spends 38% more in the
general fund;
- Sullivan county has
32% more people than Blount, but spends 10% less in their general fund;
- We are spending
millions of dollars more to run our jail than other East Tennessee
counties;
- The Sheriff has nearly
doubled the number of cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles and vans he uses
since 2002, while the population increased just 6.9%;
- Blount county uses
more than double the number of vehicles in the Sheriff's department than
Sullivan or Washington counties;
- The quality of law
enforcement in Blount, Sullivan and Washington counties is similar,
because they are the only three counties in Tennessee that are certified
by the Commission on Law Enforcement Accreditation (CALEA)
- While the increase in
Sullivan and Washington county general fund expenditures have
approximated the rate of inflation from 2002 to 2006, the increase in
Blount general fund expenditures has more than doubled the rate of
inflation;
- we are in danger of
continuing tax increases far exceeding inflation if general fund
spending is not brought under control.
- Click here for copies
of the slides
Citizens for Better Government -
www.blounttn.net
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