No WhiteWash!

Per the Handgun Carry Permits database are the number of permits for the selected cities below.  Knoxville had 11,244 permits

A lot of us have bitched, complained, etc about things that are happening in the City of Kingsport Government.  The issues of the regional sales tax for Meadowview not being stopped or returned back to the citizens, aquatic center, MeadowView Convention Center Expansion, out of control spending, etc.

I got an email (below) from Ben Cunningham with Tennessee Tax Revolt offering to help us out.  This may be what we need to give us the kick in the rear to get something done and show the elites that its not about them and the special interests groups. The petition can force the issue to a vote by the citizens.

Email

If anyone in Kingsport or thereabouts is interested in starting a petition drive to oppose a general obligation bond issue (or any other reason, sales tax reduction, home rule govt, etc)  I’ll be glad to come to Kingsport (or anywhere else in the State) and help to start a petition drive. ….that’s what we do.

www.TnTaxRevolt.org
Tennessee Tax Revolt, Inc. is an all-volunteer, non-profit, non-partisan, statewide taxpayer advocacy group. We are working to protect the family budget from excessive taxation and for open, accountable government.

Check out our Taxpayer Information Center for the most complete set of informational links to be found in Tennessee:
http://www.tntaxrevolt.org/ttr-resource-page.htm

Also, check out the Ben’s Taxing Tennessee blog

A few suggestions for petitions

• Funding for the Aquatic Center must be approved by the voters
• Establish Alderman districts to better represent citizens on issues
• Abolish the 1/4 cent Regional Sales Tax
• Voters must approve/disapprove MeadowView Convention Center Expansion

Action Needed: What I need from you are your thoughts?  Do you think it is a good idea?  Would you help in a petition effort?  Can you get others to help get petitions signed?  I need you response quickly.

Click on the email icon below to send your thoughts and comments.   Spread the word about this post and encourage people to respond also via email.

Below are sample citizens petitions from Tennessee Tax Revolt resources page and a few others that I found.

Samples of Citizen Petitions
Giles Cnty Petition to implement a County Financial Management System per Tennesssee Code Annotated 5-21-126
Wheel Tax Petition used in Carroll County
Carter County Petition to Repeal the Local Option Sales Tax
Roane County Petition calling for a referendum on jail construction bonds
Memphis Petition calling for Charter Commission Election
Metro Nashville Let the People Vote on Property Taxes Charter Amendment Petition
Metro Nashville Term Limits Charter Amendment Petition
Anderson County Petition to raise sales tax for County Schools
City of Kingston Mayor and Council Recall Petition
Petition for Ouster of Coopertown Mayor
Writ of Ouster for Coopertown Mayor by District Attorney
Oak Ridge Petition asking for a referendum on Shopping Center Bonds
Petition for Metropolitian Government Sullivan County
Petition to amend the Shelby County Charter to preserve five Constitutional offices
Roane County, TN Bond Protest Petition
Robertson County Bond Protest Petition
Spring Hill Bond Protest Petition
Giles County Charter Petition

Taxing Tennessee blog has a post and petition that may be of interest to the citizens of Kingsport, TN.  Check out the link and also look at the petition.

The Springfield Board of Mayor and Aldermen just decided to put $3 million of NEW DEBT on the backs of Springfield taxpayers. The City does NOT need to be borrowing more money when the economy is in shambles. Under TN Law the citizens of Springfield can force a vote on this new debt but time is short.

Tennessee passed the “Tennessee Tollway Act” (2007 Public Chapter No. 597) and it will be interesting how this all sorts out if U.S.Congress is successful.

Newly elected US representative introduces legislation to ban the imposition of tolls on existing freeways.

A newly elected member of Congress is leading the effort to ban the imposition of tolls on existing interstate highways. US Representative Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) last week introduced HR 1071, the Keeping America’s Freeways Free Act, which is designed to prohibit any new efforts to collect tolls on an interstate.  Read more on Toll Roads

The administration of Mayor Dennis Phillips recently sent the letter below to residents in the Rock Springs Road area.

The letter is an attempt to get homeowners to voluntarily request to be annexed into the City of Kingsport, TN.

The letter also attempts to paint a rosy picture on how much better homeowners would be if they were within the city.

The mailing from Kingsport does it show the real cost of water or sewer tap fees or other costs, but the letter is borderline misleading.  The statement, “Residents with school age children who desire to attend city schools will realize even greater savings” is simply not true.  To my knowledge, the county does not charge tuition and neither does the city to attend the schools. 

The letter states that the costs are minimal.  The city needs to get real, because most homeowners know that their property taxes will almost double.  The letter states that trash collection is free.  How does the city get by saying it is free when you pay them the property tax that pays for the trash collection?  If the insurance company insured the house for free, it will still cost the homeowner more to be in the city.

The bottom line is that the city wants to continue the “forced annexations” and it does not matter what the homeowners think about it.  They are going to annex you because they in simple terms want the revenue from you because the population in Kingsport is declining and Kingsport is losing its tax base.  The additional revenue from annexations is needed for the spending binge that the city has been on.

A homeowner told me, “Why should I agree to be annexed now and start paying taxes and it could take up to five years to get the sewer installed?”  The homeowner also stated that they were more concerned about staying employed in this economic crisis than getting annexed.

The recent “forced annexations” over the last few years have resulted in hard feelings on the part of the homeowners.  This election, they get to vote and I am sure that they will return the favor by voting for someone other than Mayor Dennis Phillips.  I know Mayor Phillips is running unopposed, but they could also vote for a write-in candidate.

I want to thank the homeowner for me sending the letter below and other materials from the City of Kingsport.

29 January 2009

Dear Property Owner:

The annexation of your area will be considered by the Kingsport Regional Planning Commission in 2009. Future mailings from the Kingsport Planning Department will outline specific dates and meeting times for all annexation pertaining to your property. As some of you may be aware, previous Rock Springs annexations have been delayed by lawsuits filed by a handful of property owners.

An unfortunate side effect of annexation litigation is that court action prevents the city from annexing others who desire to become city residents, even if they are not party to a lawsuit

To avoid such a dilemma, the City of Kingsport is providing you with an opportunity to petition for annexation now, thus avoiding potential delays with the annexation of your property in the future.

There are many services available to city residents which are not provided by county government. A full description of these benefits is enclosed with this letter, along with an annexation cost-benefit worksheet.

For many potential city residents, the costs are minimal after taking into account lower home owners insurance due to better police and fire protection, dramatically lower water/sewer rates and free residential garbage disposal.

Residents with school age children who desire to attend city schools will realize even greater savings. However, county schools remain available to your children even if you reside inside Kingsport city limits.

In order to bring your property into the city, the Planning Department will need to receive the signed petition (attached) from you no later than 3 March 2009.

For assistance with the worksheet or other questions, please call the Kingsport Planning Department at (423) 229-9485.

Sincerely,

Ken Weems
Planner

City Hall       225 West Center Street       Kingsport, TN       37660-4237       (423) 229-9400
The Model City – Built by design and planning for the future.

Below is written by a Rock Springs homeowner who originally posted here.

18 years ago I built my house, outside of the city.  If I had wanted to live in the city, I would have built in the city.  Kingsport Government is out of control.  They annex purely to increase their tax base, not based on the need of the county citizens.  Do you wonder why they built a city school that is several miles out in the county, several miles past Rock Springs Elementary and South High School?  Why not annex Bloomingdale or other similar areas that are physically closer to the main part of the city?  Tax base!  Kingsport City Government is just like the Federal Government in that they are out of touch with what the citizens want and just want more money to spend, spend, spend!   I have talked to a lot of people in the Rock Springs annexation area.  I have not met even ONE that wants to be annexed!   Ten out of 218 want annexed. What happed to majority rules? What happed to democracy?  It’s not what the people want, it is what “the big wheels” in Kingsport want to maintain their funding and to provide the developers they are in bed with.

What will I get for my extra taxes?  They have already lied about what they would provide.  In a meeting held by the city at an area church (I think it was late summer, 2007) they said they would immediately address the condition of Rock Springs Road.  They said the shoulders did not meet standards for the city and were unsafe.  About two weeks after the meeting, a crew dropped off a large piece of drain culvert near the old Superette area.  I thought, well maybe there will be some good come from annexation.  The culvert sat there for months, no action.  Then they started running sewer lines and the heavy equipment chewed up and crumbled the edge of the road in a few places where there was no shoulder to start with.  The road was even more dangerous for many months.  They finally came and patched the areas they damaged and where they cut across the road.  Still, no shoulder work, or other repairs.  The road is in worse condition than it was two years ago.   They are going to have to bus kids out to fill up the new school.  Parents, you might want to drive the narrow road that will soon have lots of morning and afternoon traffic.  I hope one of these busses never ends up in the creek.  I have seen more than one car over the bank and in the creek.  Kingsport leaders, if you are going to build a school way out in the county, get your heads out of your asses and fix the road. Read this too. It’s not just me!

What else will I get for my taxes?  Trash pickup which will save me about $245 per year.  Reduced water rate?  Not exactly, yes the water rate goes down, but now there is a sewer charge to pay.  I compared my water rates with my parent’s rates who are in the city.  No savings I can see, just a different way to bill you.  Not to mention the $2000 tap on fee that we have to pay and then hire someone to run the pipe to the tap point.  They claim better fire and police protection, maybe eventually but they haven’t started building that new fire station they talked about two years ago.  They have purchased land for it though.  So far, I am about a $1,000 per year in the hole on this deal the way I see it.

Call them and complain!  (423) 229-9414    I don’t think we can stop it because the laws allow them to annex by referendum and does not require a vote from the people this effects.  Isn’t this taxation without representation?  Wasn’t there a big tea party in Boston one time over this same type of thing?  When we get annexed, vote for me to be on the city board of mayor and aldermen.  Elect me and I will vote against every annexation that comes up from now on.  Or, does anyone want to buy a house so I can move out of the city again?

East TN Conservative blog tells how to do the write-in for Mayor of Kingsport

It is disappointing that Mayor Dennis Phillips in the Kingsport, Tennessee election for mayor will not have an opponent in the race.  Having no opposition or successful write in campaign means that Dennis Phillips will win a third term.  It is a sad day for the citizens of Kingsport.

The big money interests have prevailed and in my opinion we can expect more of the same out of Dennis Phillips which is Tax, Borrow, and Spend.

I had never gotten involved very much in political matters until I began to see first hand what was happening in the City of Kingsport.

I have seen first hand, city leaders make a promise to citizens and then turn around and break that promise.  I have seen the cocky and arrogate attitude displayed by Mayor Phillips toward the citizens of Kingsport and that disturbed me very much.

I have dug down deep enough into the inner workings in Kingsport to give me a pretty good view that Mayor Phillips is going to do what he wants to do and that’s it period.  Unless you are a pal of Mayor Phillips, you can just about forget it.

I have reported in this blog many times about the attempts by Mayor Phillips administration to misrepresent data that would make the city look better.

The bottom line is if Mayor Phillips wants to do something, he has the votes from other BMA members (Joh Mallicote, Shupe and Munsey) to back him up.  It does not matter if the citizens object because he has the votes to do it.

Do not be discouraged and not vote in this election.  It is even more important that you do vote because there are three Alderman seats that are up for grabs.  There are some candidates for the Alderman positions that believe exactly what the mayor preaches.  It this happens, then we have no checks and balances in the BMA.  We would have a another rubber stamp for the mayor’s position.

While Mayor Phillips has been mayor, we have seen record spending on pet projects.  Unemployment in Kingsport is the highest in the Tri-City region.  This unemployment was high even before the so called recession hit the nation.  We see the emphasis being put to make Kingsport a destination city for tourists.  We have seen the emphasis to increase retail, but no emphasis to attract companies that can come to the area with good paying jobs to support the retail firms that are here.

This blog has done hundreds of posts concerning Kingsport’s government.  As a suggestion, enter the name “Phillips” in the search box in the upper right-hand corner.  All posts will be displayed and the word “Phillips” will be highlighted.

I will continue to report via this blog, issues that pertain to the Kingsport, TN Government.

At the February 17, 2008 Kingsport, TN Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting, Alderman Pat Shull expressed his views/concerns over a Kingsport Times-News editorial Lawmakers should facilitate school consolidation efforts.

Below is what he presented at the BMA meeting.

• INTRO – The Sullivan County Commission is currently debating the issues of declining school enrollment, subsequent over-capacity of Sullivan County Schools, and how best to address these issues to save money without compromising academic standards.
• This issue should concern  Kingsport residents since the majority of our citizens live and pay taxes in  Sullivan County
• I’ve surfaced this issue before, especially in a paper that I wrote – any unnecessary spending in the Sullivan County system affects us
• This past Sunday the Times-News published an Editorial  on this issue
• First, they praised Commissioner Brittenham for urging cooperation with the respective cities within the county.  I also commend her, and I commend the commission for taking on this issue.  I don’t  know the specific actions that they should take, let’s see the results of their analysis and discussions
• Tennessee State Law allows for cooperation within a county with multiple school districts  and I urge the respective school boards to work together
• One commissioner suggested raising the county sales tax rate.  Strictly in terms of supporting Kingsport City schools I believe this action to be unnecessary.
• The editorial recommends Consolidation of the County and City School Systems under one consolidated Board of Education with taxing authority.  I am adamantly opposed to this.  I cannot support any action that might weaken educational standards in Kingsport City Schools.
• Further, I believe that creation of a new taxing authority that would compete with the Cities and County Commission for scarce public funds is a very bad idea.
• In summary, let’s give the County Commission time to work through this issue and determine how to save money.  Kingsport should be prepared to cooperate in ways that make sense, but similar to the first rule of medical practice – we should do no harm to the current City School System.

I am sure that Kingsport, TN has many potholes that could use a few shovels of asphalt.

State and local governments will have to move quickly to take advantage of the billions of dollars Congress is offering for infrastructure projects.

Spending on everything from pothole repairs to green energy is at the heart of the stimulus plan designed to create as many as 4 million jobs in two years. With earmarks largely absent from the bill, it will be up to states and local communities to decide how to use the money, but they’ll have to scramble to meet tough restrictions that require springing into action quickly. There’s no shortage of "shovel ready" projects to choose from, but deciding and then getting the necessary approval from Washington will be difficult for some. Read more on Stimulus