Jim Coppinger join forces with cities on sales tax split

Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said in a news release Tuesday that he is working with local cities on allocation of money shared from state to local governments, and that the issue won’t arise in this year’s General Assembly session.

Coppinger stirred up a hornet’s nest in December when he asked local state lawmakers to help the county get a share from a pot of state sales tax money that’s doled out to municipal governments.

Officials in several small cities immediately protested their budgets couldn’t stand the strain, but said they would work with Coppinger if he wanted to enlarge the overall pot of money.

He and some 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.

“Hamilton County is better served when we all work together,” Coppinger said in the release. “These mayors represent cities of Hamilton County, and their constituents are my constituents. There was never any intent to harm our communities and we have moved on from this issue.”

Collegedale Mayor Katie Lamb spoke on behalf of the coalition, complimenting Coppinger for showing “great leadership.”

“We agree that cities and counties deserve a bigger share of state revenues and that we will work together going forward to try and make that happen,” she said.

Lamb said when the tax split began in 1947, cities and counties received an 80-20 split of state revenues; today that percentage is 91-9 split, she said.

“With Sen. Watson’s influential position regarding state finances, I think this is the right time to examine all state revenue streams coming back to cities and counties and hopefully find a way to increase funding to counties that provide state-mandated services and to cities that are the economic engines of the state,” Coppinger said.