Hamilton County Commission rejects tax hike

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – An overflow crowd packed the Hamilton County Commission chambers Wednesday for the vote on the fiscal budget and the tax hike attached to it.

After almost an hour and a half of public input and discussion…the commission took a vote on a resolution that would strip the proposed 34-cent tax property tax increase for the schools from the budget.

That resolution passed 5-4.

One of the swing votes was Commissioner Greg Martin, who voted to strip the school money from the Fiscal year 2020 budget.

He explained his thinking.

“I believe going forward, it’s time for the school board and the county commission to collaborate on a strategic plan to fund our public education needs in address our long term facility issues. Raising property taxes is not the only solution to this challenge. As someone who served on the school board for many years, I believe the solution will require the school board to make some difficult decisions on their end, especially when it comes to closing some of our schools and rezoning students.”

Again..the Hamilton county commission passed a resolution that took the proposed 34-cent tax increase for the schools out of that budget. The vote was 5-4. We’ll have much more on that controversial vote on News 12 at 6.