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County mayor scores with reset veto button

Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger vetoes the county's amended budget after commissioners reinstated their discretionary funds last week.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger vetoes the county's amended budget after commissioners reinstated their discretionary funds last week. Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger vetoes the county's amended budget after commissioners reinstated their discretionary funds last week.

By Times Free Press Staff 3 min read

It isn’t often that politics rises to a “veto” news conference locally.

But when six of nine county commissioners pulled $900,000 from the county’s rainy day fund in a last-minute move to keep special projects funds for themselves, County Mayor Jim Coppinger decided to hit the reset button.

In a Monday news conference, he vetoed the 2016 budget that commissioners had amended to preserve their yearly $100,000-each spending purse.

“I firmly believe it is fiscally irresponsible,” Coppinger said of the budget amendment motioned by Chester Bankston and seconded by Tim Boyd. Commissioners Warren Mackey, Sabrena Smedley and Chairman Jim Fields supported it.

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County mayor vetoes budget, says commission decision ‘fiscally irresponsible’