CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Tuesday, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly proposed a new property tax rate that would cost the average Chattanoogan over $400 more dollars per year.
This, he says, would fully fund a first responder pay raise.
As the city of Chattanooga grapples with how to better pay their first responders, a different type of discussion began among some council members during their discussion on Tuesday.
They openly questioned how Hamilton County is able to better pay their first responders, and if the county is doing enough to help the city of Chattanooga with this issue.
City councilman Dennis Clark said, “This council should really start having a deep dive discussion on what we get from the county. I believe the county is just as responsible from my safety and security as much as the city, because I pay taxes to both places,” as he pointed out the county does not pay for a fire department.
This sentiment was shared by other council members as they grappled how to raise over $23 million to fully fund first a responder pay raise.
The proposal of Mayor Kelly was not well received by several commenters on our social media pages.
Reactions ranged from blaming the situation on wasteful spending to one commenter calling this extortion.
Councilman Chip Henderson pointed out how Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett recently spoke on a pay raise for deputies.
Henderson said, “He was very proud of the fact that they were giving those raises without asking for a tax increase.”
This led some in the city to feel that they’re in an arms race with the county.
Mayor Kelly said, “Inflation goes up, we catch up, the next person has to catch up ,and at some point, I think we’re seeing this in the national numbers, it’s beginning to flatten out and at the point the numbers flatten out, the poker game will cease.”
We asked Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp about these criticisms, who says Chattanoogans are getting a lot of county services that include public safety.
Mayor Wamp pointed out, “Hamilton County EMS responds to every single one of these calls. Most of our critical calls, certainly our violent crime calls are in the city. EMS is very rarely putting a tourniquet out in the county.”
The mayor pointed to investments in public education as well within the city, and wonders why Chattanooga is considering a tax raise.
He said, “The county is doing so much to address the challenges of the city, it actually begs the question, why does the city have to raise taxes given the enormous investments that the city is seeing from the county?”
The Chattanooga City Council will continue their discussion of this issue next Tuesday at a budget session hearing.
We also broke down how the math works out in these property tax proposals in the video below:
