By a vote of 17-7, the Sumner County Commission last night approved a budget and
certified tax rate. The measures included a
$4000 pay raise for all teachers. If the Sumner County Board of Education approves, the raise will go into effect in January.
The new budget and tax rate will also fund an SRO in every existing school (hiring 15 new SROs), add funds to the highway department, and begin a construction project in Gallatin to include a new courthouse, parking garage, and jail module. The Sumner County Jail has been overcrowded for at least nine months and Sumner County's courts are scattered in multiple locations. The courthouse on the square is unsafe for employees and visitors.
11th District County Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield spoke in opposition to funding teacher pay raises and the other items paid for by the new funding. Speaking for nearly 30 minutes, Mansfield ultimately offered no alternative solutions. He mentioned several ideas for alternate funding, but never made an actual motion to amend the recommended budget. While he claimed he is "for teachers," he failed to offer a way to fund the raises he supposedly believes they deserve.
Additionally, Mansfield proceeded to insult the intelligence of Sumner County's educators by repeatedly referring to them as "pawns" who had been duped into supporting a tax increase that wasn't actually necessary. His own inability to offer a viable alternative funding source exposed his charade as little more than a failed filibuster attempt.
Likewise, 1st District Commissioner Moe Taylor offered a budget and tax history lesson devoid of many facts and then moved to amend the budget and then voted against his own amendment. He later admitted he was "confused."
Of the more than 40 individuals making public comments on the budget, the speakers were 2-1 in favor of raising the tax rate and approving a budget that included money for roads, SROs, teacher raises, and other needed improvements. Still, a small group of speakers affiliated with Kevin and Laura Baigert's Sumner Taxpayer's Alliance spoke in opposition. Many wore stickers calling teachers "pawns" and suggested that while they supported teachers, they didn't support the mechanism for funding their raise.
Kevin Baigert himself compared teachers wearing red to soldiers in Communist China who were just doing what they were told.
Many of the anti-tax/anti-raise speakers seemed to have no memory of the history of budgeting in Sumner County. None acknowledged the budget crisis of 2012 brought about by a previous County Commission that spent all the reserve funds and dipped into the hospital fund proceeds. Instead, the anti-tax crowd suggested spending all the reserves and using the hospital fund (one-time money) to pay for teacher raises (a recurring expense).
Apparently, few in this group remember the actions that led to nearly eliminating all portable trailers in Sumner County, eliminating many student fees paid by parents, planning for a new school campus (Liberty Creek), beginning the hiring of SROs for schools, and improving pay for classified employees across the district. As a result of a slow, deliberate, methodical approach, all classified employees in Sumner County now make at least $10 an hour. Pay for substitute teachers has also improved dramatically.
Additionally, during the 2018-19 budget cycle, Director of Schools Del Phillips indicated he was asking the School Board to fund one round of classified pay raises in 2018-19, adding in all remaining classified in 2019-20 (current budget cycle), and then moving forward with a significant raise for teachers.
The point: The idea that a pay raise for teachers is some sort of surprise is simply -- to borrow from Commissioner Mansfield -- "a false narrative."
Ultimately, 17 County Commissioners voted in favor of fiscal responsibility, low taxes, and much needed improvements in county services. Meanwhile, 7 voted to kick the can down the road -- to support a philosophy of spending all the money with no planning for the future.
Here's how they voted:
Voting YES:
Geminden, Hinton, Driver, Foster, Schell, Ring, Sullivan, DeWitt, Echols, Rhodes, Tucker, Chris Taylor, Goode, Krueger, Langford, Guthrie, Nipper
Voting NO:
Hyde, Becker, Wright, Tinsley, Graves, Moe Taylor, Mansfield.
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