Jay GreesonWith an 8-0 vote – Hamilton County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks was absent for the single biggest vote of the year – commissioners approved the 2016-17 fiscal budget.
To say it was easier than last year’s process is to say that Pat Summitt will be missed.
If last year was a tug of war, this was ring around the rosey. If last year was the “1812 Overture,” this year was “Kumbaya.”
About six minutes after Commissioner Warren Mackey finished the Pledge of Allegiance, the budget was passed. County Mayor Jim Coppinger’s plan for the $679.6 million proposal was passed like grass through a goose.
Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.
The $900,000 elephant in the Hamilton County Commission meeting room Wednesday was the issue of discretionary funds that have been used by commissioners to fund their pet projects.
From nicknames to political backstabbing, last year’s fight to get the six-figure slush fund reinstated in Coppinger’s budget became a multi-week ordeal that generated the first vetoed budget in recent memory. Wednesday it took 90 seconds – whether that would have been the case if Fairbanks had been there is a fair question to which we don’t know the answer.
The discretionary funds became a talking point about fiscal conservatism. It became defined by behind-closed-doors alliances.
It was an example of the fear we have that our elected leaders frequently think more about keeping their jobs than doing their jobs.
And just like that, discretionary funds appear to be gone – hopefully for good. That’s reason to celebrate.
You have spoken, with either your complaints or your silence, about this issue, and those complaints were heard.
Consider that last year, six commissioners – Chester Bankston, Tim Boyd, Jim Fields, Warren Mackey, Sabrena Smedley and Fairbanks – worked to reinstate the discretionary funds, and Wednesday it was a whitewash.
“We got the budget with plenty of time to review it and the mayor took the time to answer every question we had, and that makes a difference,” Boyd said. “As for the discretionary funds, it became clear it was a controversial policy, and I didn’t have the outpouring to continue them from anyone in my district or even the people who received the funds.”
This time last year I called it government at its worst. In a lot of ways, then, it’s fair to call this good government.
A lot of that credit goes first to Coppinger, who again presented a budget without a tax increase for the sixth consecutive year. (Side note: It’s easy for commissioners to claim they have never voted for a tax increase when the county mayor has not presented them a budget with a tax increase.)
“This is a win for the Hamilton County taxpayers,” said Coppinger. “We have always talked about good government and being fiscally responsible. I believe this budget is both of those things.”
Coppinger again this spring held a series of workshops about the budget, and even met face to face with Boyd last week.
Boyd, who last year was among those banging the drum to keep the discretionary funds alive, delivered about 45 seconds of public praise for the mayor’s efforts before the vote.
And with those eight ‘Yes’ votes that followed on Res. No. 616-28A – commissioners’ discretionary spending funds were put to rest.
It left little drama to the rest of the meeting, of course, with the highlights being congratulating artist Kevin Bates on his mural on McCallie Avenue honoring the five servicemen killed last July 16 and Berean Academy sixth-grader Morgan McLean for qualifying for a STEM academy this summer at Emory University in Atlanta.
Was it as politically exciting as last year’s fiasco? Of course not, but that’s a good thing.
To that we should celebrate the strength of Coppinger and Joe Graham and those who led the fight against discretionary funding from the beginning.
But we should also congratulate the other side for seeing the errors made this time a year ago.
It was government as it should be done – with the taxpayers and their money counting first and foremost.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6343. His “Right to the Point” column runs on A2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.