Towle Takes On Hyde Regime

Star News General Manager Mike Towle is taking on Merrol Hyde and his band of cronies on the County Commission.  This time, it's over convenience voting.

Towle's point in several recent columns seems to be that a relatively small group (Hyde, Jerry Stone, Jim Vaughn, Kirk Moser) essentially control all of Sumner County politics and policy.  Readers may recall that Hyde was once BOTH Director of Schools and Chair of the County's Education Committee.  This meant he proposed the school system's budget to the Education Committee he Chaired (which passed it, of course) and then presented that budget to the Commission as Director of Schools and then recommended that budget to the Commission as Education Committee Chair.

Readers might also recall that the last property tax increase in the County (2002) occurred when the Director of Schools submitted a budget that required additional funds -- the Director of Schools then was none other than Merrol Hyde, who convinced his friends on the Commission to raise the taxes needed to fund his otherwise out of balance budget. 

Fast forward to 2011 and 2012, when the Director of Schools (not from Sumner County, not even from Tennessee) proposed budgets that needed additional revenue.  Then, Hyde, Stone, Vaughn, and Moser led a group on the Commission to lock down against any new revenue for schools. 

It seems Mike Towle might just be on to something. 

Convenience voting or no, there IS an election in 2014.