The county is hurting

Two articles of note came to my attention and shows that money may become rather tight for our county in the near future.

First is the problem that scrying the future can create problems when planning upcoming projects.

The county's sales tax revenue for schools, which had been projected to increase by 9 percent this year, rose only 1.36 percent in the first five months of the fiscal year, which started July 1.

The county had estimated the sales tax revenue would be $38.3 million for schools in 2007-2008 — more than $3 million more for schools than last year.

How this will effect the middle school planned for our end of the county is unknown.

The other problem is a ruling from the state government about a fee placed on development.

Rutherford County officials' hopes of making developers pay for new schools have been shot down.

An opinion by Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper Jr. says that making developers pay for new schools would be a development tax and is not allowed under existing law.

"(S)uch a provision would conflict with both the spirit and the express language of the County Powers Relief Act," the opinion states.

That act prohibits Tennessee counties from enacting new infrastructure taxes or fees, other than an adequate facilities tax in which the county can charge developers up to $1 per square foot for new construction. If a county enacts that tax, it has to eliminate all of its other infrastructure taxes.

It looks like budgets will be cut and tightened and that's not good anyway you look at it.

The comprehensive plan that the Smyrna town government recently planned is based on the growth of our town. This may slow down the implement of it. While the budgeting is based on different resources for the most part, there is enough connection to the growth that the grand plans may be slowed just a bit.