Ron Littlefield

Though annexation and government consolidation both likely would mean higher taxes for residents in unincorporated Hamilton County areas, there’s one major difference between the two, annexation opponents say.

Annexation requires only the approval of the City Council, while consolidation must be OK’d by voters in Hamilton County and Chattanooga.

“It should be government by the consent of the people,” said County Commissioner Larry Henry, one of the most vocal opponents to Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield’s annexation efforts.

Mr. Henry, who often has called the annexation efforts “taxation without representation,” said giving residents the chance to vote on whether their taxes go up would allay much of his concern.

Last week, Mr. Littlefield said he would pause residential annexation votes in some areas if county officials would discuss consolidating governments.

One big aspect of consolidation, he said, would be establishing equitable taxation for city and county residents. City residents now pay both city and county property taxes, while those who live in unincorporated areas only pay county tax.

A referendum would be required if officials decide to try for full-on metro government, but some county officials, such as County Mayor Claude Ramsey, have said they are not interested in metro government.

Mr. Littlefield said city residents are subsidizing county services, such as police and fire protection, in addition to paying for their own, and that needs to be made more equitable.

“Unless the county gets its funds from somewhere outside of the city, we are paying more than our share,” he said. “We’re paying 60-some-odd-percent of the county’s tax base.”

If the county makes any effort toward making the tax distribution more equitable, “the people in the outlying areas will have an increase in their taxes,” Mr. Littlefield said.

“Those of us who live in the city probably won’t have a decrease in our taxes, but at least our taxes won’t be raised to supplement the services that are competing with the city out there,” he said.

Mr. Littlefield suggested that one way to make taxation more equitable is for the county to adopt fire tax districts so people in different districts pay separate property taxes for their own fire protection.

Mr. Ramsey would not comment at this time on this issue of tax equity.

County Commissioner Warren Mackey, whose district primarily includes areas in the city, said officials should be cautious about jumping into making changes such as setting up those districts.

“Until we can get a better sense of what that would cost, we should go really slow,” he said.

Dr. Mackey said the issue for him in the whole situation is whether taxes for city residents will increase.

He said annexation almost certainly would cause taxes for Chattanooga residents to go up because services would be spread more thinly.

Kyle Holden, president of Hamilton County Residents Against Annexation, said his group’s main concern is annexation. As for tax equity and government unification, the people are going to have a vote in that matter, he said.

“We’re going to let the city and the county work that out,” Mr. Holden said.