Hamilton County Government With Blinders On

One thing you can say about the county mayor and most of the county commissioners in Hamilton County, Tennessee; they are insistent about no property tax increase.

One can say there is fear - don't want to be ridiculed on a billboard nor face the wrath of election recall by local tea party activists. But it is much deeper than that.

Our county government leaders blindly place all of their eggs into economic growth - growth will give us necessary revenue increases they reason. That's what happened in the late 1920s too; see how that went.

It doesn't matter what the policy is - there are always strengths and weaknesses. And dependent on economic growth, cutting spending and not increasing revenue has weaknesses. Don't let anyone try to fool you that it doesn't. Every policy has pros and cons. 

I don't believe in political cycles either on the local government level. Local government doesn't change on cycles; they respond to the needs of the community. Except for this county government we have now - it only responds to the needs of economic growth; not to the community. I don't think a county government responding to public education needs or to community needs is ever coming back to Hamilton County.

My prediction - there will continue to be a strong resistance to a property tax increase in Hamilton County for a long time. But there will come a time that economic growth doesn't pay the county government bills; and that, would be the worst time to increase property taxes.

Something's got to give

My fellow Rock Chalk Jayhawker, reporter Kevin Hardy of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, wrote a quote from a school principal about the funding of schools in Hamilton County: something's got to give.

That's exactly right.

Something does.

Superintendent Rick Smith was appointed county school superintendent because he was one of Hamilton County's developed educational leaders. And by no means is that a derogatory statement - Tennessee PTA just awarded Smith the Superintendent of the Year award. And justly deserved. We do have highly qualified educational leaders within this county.

But Smith was appointed to be able to overcome that outsider tag that dogged previously appointed school superintendents in Hamilton County. They had to endure that tag each time budgets and school financing came up. Smith would be treated differently so went the reasoning.

Well, that's not happening either.

Despite traveling to all parts of the county holding public meetings and holding school staff meetings, it seems that nothing is going to give as far as increased taxes and school funding. A part of Smith's proposed budget increase - approved by the county school board - is to double the block grants to each school. Do we really expect our schools to operate on the same amount of block grants as in 1998?

Apparently Commissioner Joe Graham, who derisively calls this the Rick Smith Tax Increase, does. And so do other county commissioners who have painted themselves into a corner running as candidates on a no tax increase platform.

As the lame-duck president of the Hamilton County Council of PTAs (I only have 13 days left as of this post), I was pleased that the council's board of managers took a position back in November 2014 to support any budget increase by the school board. It is not the PTA unit's job to raise money for public school operations nor for school staff. That is the government's job plain and simple.

It seems strange to me that the county commissioners and the school board are elected by exactly the same electorates in each district. Yet, an overwhelming majority of school board members supporting a budget increase is meeting resistance from county commissioners representing the same people. How odd.

I wonder what it will take, or what needs to happen, for a majority of county commissioners to support increasing taxes for school funding. Something's got to give.

Nashville. Parthenon. And Homage to Athena.

The Parthenon, Nashville.

I've drove by Centennial Park many times in Nashville. It is after all located in the uber-hip West End part of Nashville. Not too far from the fave foods of P. F. Chang's. And not too far of a long drive from the Tennessee PTA office over on Acklen either.

Well the family and I were in Nashville yesterday and to spend a little bit of time before heading over to Vanderbilt, we decided to go to Centennial Park, at first, just to walk around. My wife found a lovely swing to sit in and read her book.

My son and I were intrigued by the Parthenon. He always wanted to see the statue. Me being naive on the Parthenon had no idea what statue he was talking about. But I did take this great picture of the Parthenon. This was taken facing generally westerly looking across the park lake. There is a circular drive on the front side where lucky drivers can park their cars and have a short walk to the entrance. So, David and I decided to hike over to the Parthenon and see what was inside this amazingly constructed replica. I say westerly above to point out that the front of the building faces east. Which is the direction Athena faces.

What I discovered inside was a little bit unsettling. After all, I grew up instilled that Nashville was the belt buckle of the Bible belt. The honest-downhome-goodness of country music. More Southern than Global. So Nashvillians thought of their fair city as the Athens of the South? And to pay homage to that they decided building a replica of the Parthenon with a big statute representing a mythical god holding another mythical god along with Medusa and a serpent was a good thing? Well, we all have our little quirks I suppose. But as I say in the end of this post, what a gift to the city in educational value about learning history and culture.

So after perusing a lovely art gallery on the 2nd floor -- well worth the 6 dollars admittance fee to view the gallery by the way -- we climbed the steep stairs to the 3rd floor.

A 42-foot statute placed on a massive marble pedestal, gilded in gold (the real stuff) faced east protected by massive 1-foot-thick, 7.5 ton each bronze doors. Wow. I'll let the pictures below tell their story.

The architecture of the Parthenon is a real joy to see. One really has to go inside to see the artistic touches in completing this building. The amount of money sitting in one spot in the form of the Athena statue is amazing to see. The historical and artistic explanations enlightens many about the past Greece culture that has affected our society so much.