County Commissioner Richard Casavant had considered retiring this year from the commission he has held for three terms, but he changed his mind after Volkswagen announced it would build a car-manufacturing plant here. We’re glad he decided to run again for office, and agree with his reason: The pending growth boom here will require experienced hands to steer the county’s growth, to develop the new infrastructure the community will need, and to focus the community’s attention on improving education. Mr. Casavant’s experience and leadership will be needed.
As dean of UTC’s College of Business, Mr. Casavant brings particularly useful expertise to the commission. Though at times we’ve found his core conservatism mystifyingly at odds with the need for growth planning, we agree that his broader view of county finances and judicious investments has been helpful. It has kept county spending generally at prudent levels and has helped the county attain a triple-A bond rating, the gold standard for county and state governments.
The county’s rare tax increases, which he rightly supported, have been modest and mainly for education. They certainly were necessary. The county’s school system has been, and continues to be, cheated by the state in terms of Basic Education Program funding. Indeed, the school system is still more than $12 million short of the state’s BEP funding formula appropriation given now to every other school system in the state. Gov. Phil Bredesen had intended to correct that glaring inequity by now, until the Great Recession whacked his plan.
Mr. Casavant alone will not be able to change the state’s revenue crisis, but he would continue to be an insightful steward and wise advocate of the work that lies ahead for the county. He supports consolidation of the county’s badly fragmented water utility districts, a coordinated sewer program, and some city and county urban services in order to serve growth more efficiently.
He laments that just 25 percent of the county is served by sewers, and that most of the unsewered land does not percolate adequately for septic tank systems. That restricts commercial and industrial growth on much of the land, and causes too much contamination on residential land. He would like to improve sewer trunk lines and connections to serve growth and improve public health.
Mr. Casavant also believes that far more attention must be paid to schools to boost educational achievement. He is among several county leaders who recognize that the new job growth on the county’s horizon will require a better educated work force, and schools that focus more intensively on math, science, reading and comprehension skills.
His challenger in the Republican primary, Jim Fields, is an attorney and a political novice. He is running as a strict conservative on taxes, term limits and a pledge to adopt a tax freeze for seniors that would be in addition to the state’s tax-relief program for low-income seniors and that would shift tax burdens unfairly onto younger families. But he goes too far in trying to get to the right of Mr. Casavant, and he admits that he has not been thinking about the growth and urban service issues in which the county must lead in the pending growth boom.
Given the county’s immediate needs, Mr. Casavant is easily the better and more informed candidate. We strongly endorse his bid for another term.