CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – The war of words continued today over Chattanooga’s tax hike proposals.
Mayor Kelly issued a release on Thursday attacking Council member Chip Henderson’s proposal which is lower than the Mayor’s.
Then another city council member took a shot at the Mayor’s release.
We are posting both messages in their entirety, starting with Mayor Kelly.
From Mayor Kelly’s Office:
A public hearing will be held on Tuesday, August 26, on Councilmember Chip Henderson’s 1.69 property tax rate proposal before Council takes its first vote on setting a new tax rate. Henderson has declined to discuss the impacts of the cuts to city services in his proposal, but the Kelly Administration feels it’s important for Chattanoogans to know what’s at stake before City Council votes.
“Councilmember Henderson’s slash-and-burn plan is the worst of both worlds; it makes painful cuts to city services and would still result in a significant increase in property tax bills,” said Eric Holl, senior advisor to Mayor Tim Kelly. “The Kelly administration does not believe it is responsible to cut road paving, 311, violence prevention and the new fire company that would serve East Brainerd. We are asking Council to support Mayor Kelly’s compromise 1.93 plan, which raises enough revenue to combat the rampant inflation since Mayor Kelly took office in 2021 while still funding critical services.”
Henderson’s proposal mandates mid-year budget cuts to city departments, which could result in the following impacts to services:
Layoffs across departments with insufficient funding to support current staff levels.
A scale-down of 311 and Constituent Services, preventing residents from easily reporting potholes and clogged drains, or requesting brush pick-up, for example.
Defunding the expansion of the 423 Chain Breakers Violence Interruption Program, which has helped drive historic crime reduction in our community.
Not hiring needed technology staff to execute the very strategy approved in the FY26 Budget to protect Chattanooga from cyber attacks, exposing the City to dangerous ransomware threats, and putting your vulnerable personal data at risk.
Elimination of accounting and internal auditing staff, undermining the City’s fiscal stability and that could result in waste, fraud, cost overruns – or the need for more cuts or tax increases to combat future deficits.
Cuts to job training programs that help reduce crime and empower Chattanoogans to escape poverty.
Chattanoogans overwhelmingly spoke in favor of Mayor Kelly’s 1.93 compromise proposal at Tuesday’s budget hearing. Here are a few of the things Henderson wants to cut from Mayor Kelly’s 1.93 compromise proposal:
Cuts $7.5 million for road paving, so we fall further behind on our paving backlog as our streets degrade
Leaves Chattanoogans in East Brainerd at heightened fire risk by eliminating funding for the Chattanooga Fire Department’s Station 21, a new fire company that CFD has been requesting for years to eliminate a 15-minute gap in fire response in the area
Increases homelessness by slashing funding for eviction prevention and affordable housing, pushing more working Chattanoogans out of the city.
Places Chattanooga’s families at risk by eliminating $2 million in funding to address the backlog of maintenance in our parks.
Despite making all of those painful cuts, Councilman Henderson’s proposal still raises the median property tax bill by $216 per year.
Under Mayor Kelly’s proposal, the total state and local tax burden in Chattanooga would still rank among the very lowest in the nation, with our operating budget per resident lower than any of Tennessee’s major cities, except Memphis.
The 1.93 proposal is measured, reasonable, and affordable, while Henderson’s proposal is reckless and irresponsible.
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Here is the response from City Council member Jeff Davis:
“As the time for voting draws near on Mayor Kelly’s budget amendment proposal and the alternative proposal sponsored by Councilman Chip Henderson and myself, it’s unfortunate to see that the Mayor continues to engage in fear-mongering and deceptive messaging in an attempt to distract from the hard truths about this important issue. Our alternate proposal would have been unnecessary if the Kelly administration had done two things they previously committed to doing: discussing areas in the current budget where efficiencies and savings could be found in order to help fund much-needed pay raises for police officers and firefighters, and focusing the budget amendment on those raises and not other areas already funded in the current budget. Both of those commitments were focused on minimizing a property tax increase.
Those of us who oppose Mayor Kelly’s proposed budget amendment and support the alternative proposal believed him when he made these commitments, but he has broken his word. Mayor Kelly has chosen instead to capitalize on historically high property reappraisals to “capture the growth” in taxpayers’s property values by proposing a 38-cent increase in the millage rate from the certified millage rate of $1.55, an increase far higher than is necessary to provide pay raises to our brave first responders. And despite abandoning his earlier commitments and refusing to engage with willing members of City Council in an effort to lessen the property tax burden on Chattanooga residents, the Mayor somehow believes he has presented a “compromise plan”.
The truth is that Councilman Henderson’s alternative budget amendment proposal, which I am proud to co-sponsor, sets a millage rate of $1.69, which is only a 14-cent increase from the certified rate and will provide the same funding for raises for our police officers and firefighters as Mayor Kelly’s plan. The truth is that our plan will not force layoffs and cuts in city services unless the Kelly administration chooses those outcomes, rather than readjusting city spending to make do with the reasonable amount of additional tax revenue provided by our proposed millage rate. The truth is that our plan strikes an appropriate balance between giving much-needed raises for our first responders and minimizing the tax burden on hardworking Chattanoogans.”- Councilman Jeff Davis
