As is his annual tradition, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp, joined by other local and state elected officials, delivered his fourth State of the County address this week. As per usual for him, Wamp boasted of his supposedly fiscally conservative and low-tax agenda.
“Through cost-cutting exercises, efficiency operations, we’ve managed to deliver the lowest property tax rate since 1941,” Wamp said to a crowd of state lawmakers and local leaders on UTC’s campus. “It’s not easy. It has required an enormous amount of diligence.”
Of course, this austerity-driven governance is not exclusive to Hamilton County. Wamp, identifying where the county derives this mindset, said, “We are emulating the state of Tennessee in these efforts.”
The county mayor, a Republican, was echoing his GOP colleague state Sen. Bo Watson, R-North Chattanooga, who spoke before him.
“In the Nashville state capitol, our focus remains on being fiscally conservative,” Watson said. “Our budgeting is conservative. We use and spend our infrastructure and education dollars efficiently and effectively.”