HB 1554-The new bill that the Honorable Kevin Brooks, our 24th District Tennessee State Representative, has so gladly and with much fanfare brought to us on a gold covered chariot is ramping up. (Now it really didnt come in on a golden covered chariot) but it is beginning to show its ugly head here in Bradley County. This bill that we were amended to from the Metropolis of Chattanooga as a part of their Agenda 21 “Climate Change Growth” is being touted as Brownfield Redevelopment for our downtown area and is very much a part of the bigger picture of Agenda 21 for our town. The more I am finding out about this bill and Bradley County being amended to the bill by Mr Brooks, the scarier it becomes.
Briefly, I will attempt to tell you a little bit about this bill as I understand it. Southside Development has begun and are on the move! The elusive SouthSide “gang” moves to spend loads of your money and evades exposure! Who are those guys anyway? The bill is to provide the funding and direction to “clean up” the downtown area from “brownfields” or from dirty development over the years, waste, oil spills, asbestos etc. The downtown area and the 90 plus acres (thats alot of your property) in the downtown area that has been targeted for clean up is being funded in a sneaky way of using your tax dollars that Mr Brooks has touted as a “free bill”, “no cost to you” bill, the TIF (Tax Increment Financing)! The one thing that did not get mentioned was that through a series of new sales taxes, use of old sales taxes, future property taxes, manipulation of existing property taxes using the TIF, multiple long term bonds, interest from those bonds, property tax value increases this project will be funded for “FREE”, yeah right!
The property around the downtown area will recieve an initial property tax assessment (the EAV), a bid to clean up the properties, the property cleaned and resurfaced then the downtown property will be re-valued at a signifcant increase, then difference will help pay for this monstrosity of a bill, a bid to a “favorite construction bidder” from I would suspect a list of construction donors that have given generously to the respective campaigns of the sponsor of this bill and its amending State Representative ( the bids have not gone out, is only speculation but will be interesting to see who gets these contracts for redevelopment), EMINENT DOMAIN, yes Eminent Domain will be used to gobble up the properties in and around this 90 plus acres, a fair market value offered and off you go. If you can stand to hang around in the downtown area and are wealthy enough to pay the new increased Property Tax, and can afford the new property value you can buy one of the properties from one of the opportune realtors who bought the property from their friends at a deep discount. Then the infrastructure, the high rises, the schools, the water, the sewer, the bridges, parking garages, the high speed rail, the offices, the Mayors new community center with his name splashed all over it, and to think this will all be free! Wow, dont be fooled, you will be paying for this, folks!
Then the property value in and around the area will go through the roof! And just think, a few short years prior the value of the land that was taken from those citizens was worth near nothing and were paid a pittance will watch as their once humble homestead will sell to developers and be resold at huge profits! What a loss for those poor souls. BRADLEY COUNTY this is a racket and is going to destroy the quiet and quaint town we used to know. I can hear the naysayers now, its the Jobs! Its for the kids! Its for our future! The FREE MARKET is being disrupted guys, the huge corporations are getting the pass here, not your local businesses. As the businesses move into town and you will not see this posted on any Chamber of Commerce website, but when the free market is rendered vulnerable and useless, we will suffer great loss and see even more jobs lost. The Recovery Act that is being hailed as the “hope and change” that saves America is not working. Billions upon billions have been pumped into our local economy over the last two years and what have we gotten? Not the 8% unemployment, but near 10 %. In April we were at 9%. What is happening is this plan and the billions we are recieving of “your tax dollars” in Bradley County is setting us up for complete collapse.
We are bragging that we have a balanced budget in Bradley County and we are doing nothing more that borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. for instance, if I want to balance my home budget and I go borrow X amount from my neighbor, get a loan to pay off my car, recieve food stamps to feed my kids, and then say some of my debt will be income because eventually I will pay it off right? Is that really a balanced budget? You see the point. We are broke in this County and we continue to spend as if we are not. What do you see wrong with this picture, exactly, its in the headlines every day, Greece failing and many other countries economies collapsing. We have got to stop this demise and it is up to you.
Bradley County News Network 