It is most unfortunate that Tennessee’s inadequate method of funding education leads to warring between neighbors — one community fighting for a change that would grant it more money, while taking it from the community next door; or Anderson County’s drive to supersede the sales tax rate adopted earlier by all but one of the cities within its borders.

Yesterday, the Oak Ridger reported that a May 2 sales tax referendum is unlikely, as the petition-filers are 300 signatures short and the deadline looms early next week. The County Commissioner-turned-superintendent of Anderson County Schools who is spearheading the petition drive insists that the signature-gathering continues… but if they don’t have the required number of signatures by the May 2 deadline, there are two consequences:

1. the odds of a vote to supersede decrease in a higher-turnout election (as would be the August County General and State/Federal Primary);
2. if the measure is not passed before July 1, then the County could not begin collecting the additional revenue until July 1, 2007.

This move is seen as hostile by the cities, all of whom depend upon that revenue for municipal operations. Although Oak Ridge would require a lower property tax increase (12 cents) to make up the difference than Clinton (20 cents) or Lake City (38-41 cents), it is particularly sensitive to the move because Oak Ridge voted to raise the sales tax just a couple of years ago to fund a complete makeover of Oak Ridge High School, with a “gentlemen’s agreement” from County officials that the County would not supersede for five years.

Neighboring communities depend upon one another, and success or failure in one inevitably impacts the other. Working together, we could help one another succeed… but it isn’t happening.
As a wise State Senator once told me, the unfortunate truth is that people come to Nashville asking, “don’t tax you, and don’t tax me; tax that man behind the tree!”

Or, in the present case with either fiscal capacity or superseding the sales tax “my neighbor is taxing himself so much, he must be wealthy beyond belief. Give some of that money to me instead!”