MauryTHINKS

We asked every alderman of Spring Hill a few question, two of which responded.

We are not a news-source, per say. We are an awareness group - so I am posting the emails in their entireity and not out of context in any sort of angle. Pure and True is what we want.

Here are what Alderman Rick Graham, and Alderman Jonathan Duda responded with. (No other Alderman, or the mayor chose to respond.)

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The Questions were:
Do you personally oppose a Property Tax?

Would you be willing, if law permits, to pass a Property Tax without a public vote?

Is a property tax on any future agenda?

If yes to the last two, What is your rationale for as to why?

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From Alderman Rick Graham:
The Budget and Finance Committee and City Staff is collecting as much information as possible for the BOMA for next year’s budget starting in July. The BOMA will decide if property taxes will be increased for this new budget year as every city does regularly. We will decide what our expenditures will be planned for the year and we will need to match that total with revenues. We actually have five budgets that must each zero balance for the year and be self contained or not shared. This year we have managed to reduce our expenses below a much lower revenue base combined among the five budgets. The General Fund is the only fund in the red or with a deficit and that cannot be continued because we have depleted our “rainy day” fund.

We have several capital projects and expenses necessary for next year. Impact fees are anticipated to keep decreasing at an expected rate and sales tax revenues to increase greatly (The Crossing $). Will this be enough revenue to match expenses in the General Fund, is yet to be determined. No one wants to increase property taxes but I believe we will do what is necessary to protect public services, our employees and improve roads and safety. The State audit results could be adding expenses to our General Fund for the next five years.

Tough decisions by our city leaders. The Budget and Finance Committee meets again tomorrow for about a four hour meeting. Our department heads will present their budget request for the year which is a new concept for our city. I don’t believe SH has completed a budget process in this manner before and with so much work and discussion. We meet at 4 pm in City Hall.

Take Care,

Rick Graham

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From Alderman Jonathan Duda
Thanks for your email. Below are answers to the best of my knowledge to some of the questions that you have asked. Please keep in mind that these are merely my own opinion and not an official position of the City of Spring Hill.

Do you personally oppose a Property Tax? No, I am personally not opposed to a property tax. Fundamentally, I believe that we as citizens and property owners expect the government to provide for basic necessary services such as the education of our children and the protection of our rights and property.

Would you be willing, if law permits, to pass a Property Tax without a public vote? I can not answer that question without first researching the issue in greater detail. I believe that my duty as an elected official precludes my personal opinion on this issue. Possibly a more appropriate question to ask would be ‘Would you be willing to authorize a referendum even if there were no basis in state law to do so?’. If that were the question that were asked, I would have to respond with no, I believe that my first duty as an elected official is to uphold the Constitution of the State of Tennessee as I stated during my oath of office.

Is a property tax on any future agenda? No, we just had our April meeting last evening and the May agenda has not yet been created. As a side note, we are in the early stages of developing a budget for 2008-2009. All considerations for revenue and expenditures are on the table as I personally believe that they should be (including developing a balanced budget without looking at additional revenue sources.)

If yes to the last two, What is your rationale for as to why? Again, I believe that it is my duty as an elected official to research all options to the fullest extent possible before discounting or supporting any single issue.

Jonathan Duda
City of Spring Hill Alderman
City of Spring Hill Planning Commissioner