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Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13

Greeson: When pinching pennies becomes publicly puzzling

Hamilton County School Board and Hamilton County Commissioners wrap around a table at the Hamilton County Board of Education during a joint meeting Monday, January 14, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Hamilton County School Board and Hamilton County Commissioners wrap around a table at the Hamilton County Board of Education during a joint meeting Monday, January 14, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hamilton County School Board and Hamilton County Commissioners wrap around a table at the Hamilton County Board of Education during a joint meeting Monday, January 14, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

There are a lot of us who look suspiciously and caustically with eyebrows raised at the public budgets pitched every year.

For a lot of folks in my age bracket, the tales of the $400 toilet seat in the military discussions in the 1980s will be the budgetary Alamo – never forgotten.

It was with those same suspicions and raised eyebrows that I questioned the need for the over-the-top, 34-cent tax rate increase to fund the school system’s extremely socially conscientious budgetary aims this summer.

Some of you insulted me for it. Way more of you agreed with me on it. Regardless, the fallout after the measure failed has proven that being against that needless tax increase was far and away the right side.

First there was the Trojan Horse claim that the top priority from school leadership was that our teachers need raises.