Hamilton County Schools headquarters
Chattanooga City Hall
Andy BerkeWhen Mayor Andy Berke took office last spring, his administration stopped making payments on a legally required tax to the county school system that the previous administration had started to pay.
And when the Berke administration started repaying in November, it began withholding stormwater fees for the first time in years from the school system’s checks. That move — which Tennessee’s attorney general says is unacceptable — cost the schools $132,000.
That’s on top of the $11 million owed in liquor taxes that went unpaid from 1998 to 2012 — a span of three city administrations.
Berke’s staff publicized efforts six months ago to make reparations for the millions that previous administrations failed to pay.
But records show that since taking over, his administration has withheld more than a half-million dollars as it worked to find an alternative to paying the full bill. Meanwhile, school officials said, the city’s multimillion-dollar tab and potential judgment in a pending court fight grew by the month.