County Commissioners Triple Their Pay

History of the 200% Raise

County Commissioner's Steering Committee approves tripling of Commissioner's Pay 6-1.

Commissioner's Budget Committee decides to take 5 cents of property tax from schools to use on general funds. I'll explain this a little later..

School Board announces 10 school build plan and it occurs to them that 5 cent cut will impact them..

Budget Committee proposes a budget with a 5 cent raise in property tax rate. This 5 cent number will appear again..

Commission votes 11-8 to Triple their pay.

It occurs to commissioner that their raise may affect other board's pay as well.

Hey! It looks like a Lot of people suddenly get a 200% raise!.

My speech at open budget hearing is covered by the paper.

The text of my speech.

Commissioners' response to adverse publicity to their 200% raise is hey! other people get raises!.

Some commissioners ponder rescinding pay raise.

Commissioner Allen McAdoo says he is opposed to the raise and plans to make a motion to rescind it. We'll talk more about Mr. McAdoo later.

Budget Committee votes 4-0 to rescind raises and No Tax Hike planned for budget.

In an unbelievable vote, smelling of backroom wheeling and dealing, the motion to rescind fails 10-6.

Mr. McAdoo tries to explain his courageous vote to ABSTAIN!

Remember I spoke earlier of Mr. McAdoo? I was so upset with his actions I formed an award to convey my feelings.

And Commissioner McAdoo won the first two.

Where It Stands Now

Remember I told you to keep your eye on that 5 cents of property taxes? Rutherford County Commissioners 'hid' their raise by diverting 5 (five) cents in property tax rate from schools to the general debt fund. This 'magically' seemed to cover the amount of their and other board's 200% pay raise. When your kids or your neighbor's kids bring home fundraisers such as magazine sales or candy, remember that nickel taken from the school's share of our property taxes. When your kids begin a new school year and bring home a grocery list of supplies and over $100 dollars in fees think of that nickel again. The next election of commissioners is in 2002. We have a little over 2 years left to find candidates to replace Some folks on the Rutherford County Commission.

David, who do we need to support and not support in 2002?

I have been keeping score.

Total Impact of Raise

The county's fiscal year ends in June. Every year the budget committee of OUR Rutherford County Commission holds an OPEN PUBLIC HEARING concerning the planned budget for the coming fiscal year. What other uses could that money have gone to? Schools? The Sheriff's Department for better pay? County Youth Programs? Where I come from and where I was raised ya got a raise for doing a good job and I see our commission with a lot of issues they have yet to tackle while our kids are eating lunches in hallways or sitting in one of our more than 100 county school's portables as doing a good job!

Who is my commissioner? . | . Commission Scorecard