New Hamilton County Commission Chairman Jim Coppinger said his experience as Chattanooga’s fire chief will be a big boost for him as he takes the helm of the county’s legislative body. Working as chief helped teach him how to work with people and talk through problems, he said.

Mr. Coppinger, a Republican, sat down with the Chattanooga Times Free Press after he was elected to the chairmanship last week to talk about his goals now that he holds the gavel.

Q: Now that Hamilton County’s landed the Volkswagen plant, what’s the next step? What are you going to do as chairman to lead things forward with VW and economic development?

A: Obviously, VW is going to be a huge asset to our community and to our county. However, we can’t forget about the small businesses. Small businesses in Hamilton County still comprise the majority of the jobs and the revenue we generate. We’re still going to be recruiting small businesses.

There’s going to be suppliers involved with the new Volkswagen plant that we’re going to be actively recruiting. We have a very active Chamber of Commerce that’s helping with that.

I just think it’s a great time to live in Hamilton County. There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for the citizens of this county.

Q: What specifically is the commission’s role? Is it simply to help along the Chamber or is there more the commission can do to pave the way for Volkswagen?

A: We’re going to join hands with the Chamber but also with the other municipalities, primarily with the city of Chattanooga. We’re going to do some shared costing on some of these projects that are going on involving infrastructure and some of the things for Volkswagen.

Also, as we’ve talked about, Mayor (Claude) Ramsey mentioned this a couple weeks ago in a media conference, it’s really important to us right now to look at our public education system as we move forward to make sure that we can prepare workers right here in Chattanooga to have those jobs with Volkswagen. It’s pretty simple. If we’re not prepared, people will come here and get these jobs.

Q: Mayor Ramsey set a timeline of 100 days to get some new education initiatives in place. What are some of your goals and what are some of the things you’re going to do to meet (them) and bring change to the education system?

A: We tentatively have a meeting scheduled for Sept. 8 with the Board of Education and the commission. We’ll sit down in that meeting and we’ll be discussing where we’re going to go in the future.

I think the board and the commission have the same common goal, which is to make certain these jobs are going to be made available to us. Through Volkswagen, through suppliers, through the small business recruitment, we’ll be able to have the bulk of those jobs be for people who live here in Hamilton County. We have to be prepared.

Q: Another big issue you’ll be picking up as chairman is the issue of a tax freeze or tax relief for senior citizens. Do you have any specific goals or a timeline for getting some sort of senior tax relief in place?

A: There’s not a timeline, per se, the reason being because what the people of the state of Tennessee and the people of Hamilton County voted on was a tax freeze. A tax freeze would only come into play if there was a tax increase by Hamilton County government, which there wasn’t this year, so nobody’s really lost anything in terms of the tax freeze.

We don’t anticipate there being a tax increase by Hamilton County in the near future. So there’s no need to rush into something like some of the other counties in the state of Tennessee have done until we have a lot of the issues worked out such as extensive software issues, some of the issues with the law itself as far as working out some of the things about who’s eligible and, in some instances — some of this thing I refer to as almost like gamesmanship — the way that the law is written about who qualifies for it.

But again, I think we have to go back to where we started with this on the state level. We had over 80 percent of the people in this state voting for something. Now we have to go out and make sure they understand what that impact’s going to be.

Q: Commissioner (Warren) Mackey has said he doesn’t believe there’s going to be any need for a tax increase in the next few years simply by virtue of the fact that Volkswagen and the people it brings in to Hamilton County are going to build the tax base and bring in more tax revenue. Do you agree with that assessment?

A: My approach to tax increases is that it has to be an absolute last resort.

I don’t think we’re able predict yet. I mean, obviously we’re going to generate some new revenue from Volkswagen. But I don’t think we’re able to look into a crystal ball at this time and see when that issue may arise.

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