In the end, what tipped the scale doesn't matter.
With the Hamilton County Commission's approval on Sept. 6, the county could see upgrades in education, public safety, infrastructure and economic development with $25.5 million in new revenue that can be leveraged into more than $180 million in bond money.
The commission will discuss this morning and vote next week on a resolution by Mayor Jim Coppinger that, by law, reduces the county property tax millage rate to the new Tennessee Comptroller's Office-approved 2017 certified property tax rate. Then it will vote on a second resolution to reset the millage rate to where it is today.
The result would be millions in new revenue and, as the mayor told a crowd gathered in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse Tuesday, an "opportunity before us to move the county forward."
If ever there was a time for the stars to align on boosting county revenue, this is it.
A new schools superintendent is in place, school maintenance needs are growing, the county jail is overcrowded and a new sewage treatment plant is said to be necessary for an estimated 10,000 additional homes that will be needed by 2021 and some of the 17,000 residents the county has gained since the 2010 Census.
And Coppinger can keep the millage rate where it is without asking commissioners for a property tax increase.
"This is monumental, in my opinion, for Hamilton County," the mayor said.
We hope commissioners unanimously approve the resolutions next week. With 2018 an election year, this will be the best opportunity for additional county revenue and leveraged revenue until 2019.
The county itself has not raised property taxes across the board in 10 years, has retained a AAA bond rating and has been managed conservatively.
In this case, where assessed property values have stayed the same or have gone down, property owners will pay no additional property tax or may even owe less. Where property values have gone up, property owners will pay more.
County Commissioner Joe Graham fought for the millage rate change to increase revenue during budget negotiations in late spring but got little backing.
"I caught a lot of heat for it," he said Tuesday.
Because county residents across the board won't see their property taxes rise, "I don't believe it's a tax increase," he said.
Graham will support the measures, and Coppinger said he believes he has the votes to pass them. Since the new revenue would affect the county as a whole and schools individually, commissioners who don't vote for the resolutions "are telling us they don't have needs in [their] community," he said.
"This county's on fire," he said. "The city of Chattanooga's on fire. We need to take advantage of that."
Coppinger had presented, and the commission passed, a budget in June, and the county had indicated in July it would stay with the new certified tax rate.
The mayor had passionately acknowledged the schools' additional needs in the spring but later said he didn't have the votes to pass a budget with a significantly expanded schools outlay.
Then, "in the back of my mind," he said, "was the issue of the [41-year-old] jail. We didn't realize [until the recent receipt of a commissioned study] it would be as costly as it is."
Finally, a report not expected for months on a proposed new sewage treatment plant in the northeastern part of the county arrived.
"That was just three weeks [or] four weeks ago," Coppinger said.
Since the need for revenue had grown and the millage rate still could be changed, the county went back to work.
"We put it together quickly," Coppinger said.
The mayor rightly sees the sewage treatment plant as an economic development issue, and though he said "he's not excited about spending one penny on a jail, we are responsible for that."
To him, he said, "it's all about education," without which "we will not have the workforce we need."
Coppinger said the leveraged money would allow him to make $100 million available for schools, which would be used toward the building of one or two new schools, expanding schools in high-growth areas and satisfying some of the greatest maintenance needs in the various school buildings.
Not surprisingly, schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson said it wouldn't take the school district long to come up with a priority list for schools and school maintenance.
It was, he said after Coppinger's presentation, "a good day."
It will be an even better day - and the start of even more progress for the county - if commissioners approve the resolutions next week.