The impasse between Chattanooga and Hamilton County governments over whether to negotiate a replacement for the expiring sales tax agreement apparently stems from legitimate concern by city officials over the long-ignored issue of local tax equity. But that does not justify the city’s refusal to participate in negotiations toward a new, more equitable agreement.
At stake is funding for more than two dozen vital agencies that provide basic or crucial safety net services countywide. Their services cannot be left to wither without causing serious damage to essential services. The earmarked penny on the countywide sales tax that is at the core of the impasse is an appropriate source of revenue to help sustain those services.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger has been stumping for new negotiations, but he has mainly received a cold shoulder from Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, who says the city will assume control of the earmarked sales tax revenue and apportion it to the agencies. The flaw in this is that the county has supplemented the agencies’ funding in recent years as the sales tax revenue has become insufficient to meet their budgets.
Littlefield’s response, however, may well be because of Coppinger’s repeated assertions that even if the county loses the $10 million-plus proceeds provided by the current sales-tax agreement, county officials won’t deign to even consider the possibility of a countywide property tax increase to help offset any of that loss. Nor will they consider an infusion from the county’s conspicuously large $85 million fund balance.
If the county’s pursuit of negotiations on tax revenue is essentially so one-sided, city officials could ask, why bother with one-way negotiations?