An opening salvo of debate on the city’s proposed 33 percent property tax increase led Tuesday to talk of fireworks and medical reform and a host of Chattanooga Tea Partiers telling the council they wanted no new taxes.
“Go into survival mode,” Londie Wallin, owner of Chattanooga-based Master Machines, told council members Tuesday night.
About 50 people walked into the City Council meeting room Tuesday night in protest of Mayor Ron Littlefield’s proposed 64-cent property tax hike. Many of them wore T-shirts denoting themselves as affiliated with the Chattanooga Tea Party.
One protester held a sign saying, “I am the taxpayer, I am here to help.”
Mark West, president of the Chattanooga Tea Party, told council members that businesses have had to cut during the recession and city government should, as well. He used the example of Starbucks, saying that company shuttered some of its locations instead of raising prices on its drinks.