Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said in a news release Jan. 12 that he is working with local cities on allocation of money shared from state to local governments, and that the issue will not arise in this year’s General Assembly session.
Coppinger stirred up a hornet’s nest last summer when he asked local state lawmakers to help the county get a share of the pot of state sales tax money that is doled out to municipal governments.
Officials in several of the county’s small cities immediately protested that their budgets could not stand the strain, but said they would work with Coppinger if he wanted to enlarge the overall pot of money the cities and county receive from the state sales tax.
In response, several, including Red Bank and Soddy-Daisy, formed a coalition to oppose Coppinger’s request to increase the amount of state-shared sales tax the counties receives, as well as to give the municipalities a voice at the Capitol should other issues arise that would negatively impact them.
Coppinger and the coalition of mayors and city managers met in December with state Sen. Bo Watson and agreed to join forces to work toward “long-term corrections to the state revenue flowing back to cities and counties,” the release stated.