Wednesday, April 1st

From The Cleveland Daily Banner- Second District Commissioner Thomas Crye is not pleased with Bradley County’s representatives in the state Senate and says any need for a county property tax increase rests with their actions or inactions in Nashville. And, he has plans not to let people forget it. In a communication to the Cleveland Daily Banner, Crye responded to state Sen. Mike Bell’s withdrawing the private act legislation that would have increased the county’s hotel/motel tax from 5 to 7 percent. Commissioners had hoped the new rate — which was projected to bring in $1.18 million — would be a major catalyst in helping pay the debt service on a new Lake Forest Middle School. The bill was close to being voted on in the state House of Representatives when Bell sent a letter to commissioners stating he would not proceed with the bill in the current session. A confirmation of Bell’s actions was published in last Thursday’s edition of the Banner. Crye sent a statement to the Banner “in an attempt to provide clarity and transparency.” “The two-cent increase was designed and developed to be income neutral the first year, increase the annual income the following years, provide enough additional income toward funding the new academic building at Lake Forrest Middle School (LFMS) and not require a property tax increase on the citizens of Bradley County,” Crye said. “In summary, all parties involved would have won.” “State Sen. [Todd] Gardenhire, in whose district Lake Forest is located, initially asked to sponsor the act in the Senate. He later dropped his sponsorship,” Crye wrote. “His reason, allegedly, was [his plan] to do nothing until the Bradley County [Schools system] ‘gets its act together,’ as relating to the director of schools. Sen. Bell was contacted and, to quote Sen. Bell, “reluctantly agreed” to sponsor the act in the Senate.” Crye then takes aim at Nashville lobbyists for trying to block the act. That was the same day Bell wrote his letter to the Commission. Crye says there are “several contradictions” in Bell’s statements. “The compromise was proposed by the lobbyist for the tourism industry and, through negotiation, a compromise was reached. Either Sen. Bell never read the change or was misled,” Crye said. “Sen. Bell used the word ‘unprecedented’ in the changes. For the past 24 years, the county has received revenue from the hotel/motel tax to fund projects such as Tri State Exhibition Center and the Industrial development board,” Crye wrote. Crye wrote that now that the hotel/motel rate increase is dead, “the options remain limited.” “One, increase property taxes on the citizens of Bradley County. Two, to not construct the LFMS academic building for an extended period of time. (The classrooms have been leaking in excess of 35 years and students have to go outside from one building to another to locate bathroom facilities), and three, Cleveland losing $8 million in funding for the new city elementary school on Georgetown Road,” Crye said. “It is a lose, lose situation.”Crye called it “tragic and unfortunate” the situation came to this conclusion.Simply put, I feel they deserve all the credit for the property tax increase,” Crye said. From The Times Free Press- Due to an apparent lack of support from Tennessee lawmakers, a bill proposed in the General Assembly to allow Chattanooga’s EPB and other municipally owned utilities to offer high-speed Internet outside their existing service areas is on hold until next year. Some 800 families in south Bradley County would have benefited from the expansion, according to Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, who represents the area. “I’m disappointed we weren’t able to get it passed this year,” said Ken Webb, president and CEO of Cleveland Utilities and a strong supporter of EPB’s proposed expansion. “I just feel like the entire community would have benefited from it.” Rep. Kevin Brooks, R-Cleveland, sponsored a bill that essentially mirrored a February ruling by the FCC which would have allowed municipal providers to expand into unserved areas when asked by a public distributor in that area. Gardenhire threw his support behind the Senate version. But both were put on hold ahead of their scheduled votes Tuesday. Rep. Dan Howell, R-Georgetown, co-sponsor of the House version, said that while the “pause button” has been hit, the bill is “still very much alive.” “We simply rolled it back to January 2016. The assumption is there is not enough support for the bill in the Senate at this time,” Howell added, referring to conversations he had heard about but did not specifically cite. The proposed expansion was criticized by service providers including Comcast and AT&T as well as state officials and limited-government proponents. Webb said the only thing to do at this point is “to continue to encourage our state legislators to pass the bill.” CHATTANOOGA, TN (WRCB) – Just hours before  being put on Bradley County’s Top Ten Most Wanted list, 47-year-old Charles Marvin Flint Jr. and 25-year-old Ferdinand Lucio Gonzalez were taken into custody.  Flint was arrested after an auto chase in Bradley County.  Sheriff Eric Watson tells Channel 3 that more charges will be brought along with those currently placed, such as Theft of Property and Felony Failure to Appear.  Watson said Flint attempted to escape officers, without regard for the public’s safety, “before he was stopped.  He remains in the Bradley County Jail.   Gonzalez was captured by Polk County officers in conjunction with Bradley County deputies. Gonzalez faces charges of Especially Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, From The Times Free Press- NASHVILLE — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed Insure Tennessee plan flopped for a second time Tuesday in a Senate committee and that’s thrown the House effort into confusion with two top supporters disagreeing over whether to try to move it today in a subcommittee there. Six Republican Senate Commerce Committee members voted no and only two — including the committee’s lone Democrat — said yes on the resurrected and retooled plan to use federal Medicaid dollars under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It sought to extend insurance to an estimated 280,000 Tennesseans, including nearly 19,000 in Hamilton County. The resolution failed last month in the Republican-dominated Senate Health Committee on the third day of a special legislative session called by Haslam to consider what he called his “market-driven” plan. Gardenhire voted no at that time as well. In a statement issued Tuesday night, Haslam spokesman David Smith said “the governor is disappointed in the vote but glad Insure Tennessee had a chance to be heard in two different Senate committees during regular session.” “As he has said,” Smith continued, “the issue has not gone away, and he will continue to work to find a way to cover more Tennesseans and address growing health care costs in the state.”