County Mayor Claude Ramsey tinkered with but finally dismissed the idea of retirement before the last election cycle. He had worked too hard with other officials over the previous decade to build an industrial park that could entice an automotive plant here. He believed the county was on the verge of achieving that goal, and he wanted to see it through. It was, and he did.
This time around, he is seeking another term - it would be his fifth - to see the Volkswagen plant and its supplier plants off to a good start, and to negotiate for and nurture the pending wave of related development. He deserves another term to accomplish that mission. Voters here would do well to give it to him.
Certainly Mr. Ramsey stands head and shoulders above his novice opponent, Richard D. Ford, in terms of his irreplaceable accumulated knowledge about all the moving parts in county, regional and state governments. He knows how the departmental pieces, funding mechanisms and key players fit together, and what it takes to shepherd along the coordinated efforts require to nurture and grow the development that he has helped seed. In fact, he is such an integral cog in the momentum machine that the county has created with city and state development officials that county voters would harm their interests to turn him out.
There may be grounds for some dismay that the city, county and state governments have had to create such large packages of tax incentives to attract billion-dollar investments from companies like Volkswagen, Alstom, Wacker Chemie and VW-related supplier plants. But they have to offer incentives for smaller companies, as well. And as long as partial tax-abatement, site and infrastructure incentives remain the customary tools - in the United States and abroad - for securing new development and job growth, that model isn't likely to change.
Mr. Ramsey is equally concerned with the related need to develop more competitive schools to create the quick-minded, educated and trainable workforce that new and innovative employers need. He rightly considers improved education standards and better educated students as the other essential criteria to improve job opportunities for rising young people, and to improve the general quality of life and economic prosperity that all citizens seek for their families and communities.
Mr. Ramsey has long advocated better public schools and increased support for them. The tax increases that have occurred on his watch were mainly driven by school needs and the long, pernicious decline in the state's crucial education funding for metro-area schools vis-à-vis the increasing amounts given to rural areas under the state education funding formula.
Mr. Ramsey can't fix that still inadequate formula on his own, but he served as a crucial advocate for the partial upgrade of $12 million in new state funding that Hamilton County schools received before the current recession stalled that effort at midpoint.
The county mayor's fiscal stewardship has been notable across the board. Under Mr. Ramsey's administration, the county has attained a triple-A bond rating from all three national credit rating agencies. In Tennessee, only one other county has achieved that. It's even more extraordinary that county government elevated that rating, which lowers its interest costs on capital bonds for infrastructure projects and debt management, while funding a series of new schools and the county's share of infrastructure and incentive costs for VW and other industrial development.
Mr. Ramsey does expect to continue construction of needed new schools in a couple of years after paring current bond debt. He can also be expected to continue his advocacy for improved health and exercise habits for county residents, and to continue partnering with the city to improve the community's parks, walking trails and recreation facilities.
For all these reasons, and more, Mr. Ramsey has earned, and deserves, another term. We strongly recommend his re-election.