Annexation lawsuits dropped in East Tennessee city
The recently announced dropping of six annexation lawsuits by property owners apparently has given the City of Kingsport, Tennessee a reason to celebrate. The ink on the local newspaper article (Plaintiffs drop Rock Springs annexation lawsuits), concerning the lawsuits had hardly dried when Assistant City Manager, Jeff Fleming posted information on his blog touting the victory while most citizens were still asleep.
The Mayor of Kingsport needs to understand that while the six lawsuits have been dropped, there are still more lawsuits out there that have yet to be decided on. There has been much ill feeling caused by the City of Kingsport over it’s annexation policies.
The City of Kingsport tactics on this annexation issue will not be forgotten by those folks that were in the annexation area. The city’s use of using a carrot and stick with annexations, and comments made by city officials will not be forgotten by the newly captured voters when it come time to vote.
The much bigger issue here is why did they want to annex outlying county properties. The city wants to grow and because of it’s declining population, it needs to annex to get the revenue to afford the lavish spending spree it is on.
If you are a city resident, you may not think that all of this annexation stuff affects you. But, it does by higher sewer and water rates. The water and sewer funds are called “enterprise funds” which means that the water and sewer departments has to be self-supporting. If the city wants to expand their water and sewer lines and there is not sufficient funds to cover the expense, they raise the water and sewer rates. You might even call raising the water and sewer rates a “hidden tax.”
But you may ask, can they do it? Yes they can, because Tennessee is one of only a handful of states that permit “forced annexation”. If you have a problem with Tennessee’s annexation policy, then make your views know to your state representatives.
Mayor Dennis Phillips is running for reelection, but instead of celebrating victory, he might want to say “Whoops…..what have I stirred up?”