White County Executive candidates debated the future of local economic growth and infrastructure during TheUCNow.Com’s Candidate Forum.
Incumbent White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the county has successfully added approximately 1,200 jobs and over 100 new businesses during the last decade. Robinson said the county has sold all its available industrial property and must now focus on securing new inventory to remain competitive for future projects.
“I don’t need any more minimum wage jobs, I don’t need any more fifteen dollar an hour jobs, I need something that brings in a revenue that beats higher than inflation,” Robinson said. “And White County’s been very lucky, we have beat that, it’s one of the few counties that over the last four or five years that wages have actually increased more than what inflation has and we want to keep that trend going moving forward.”
Challenger Kyle Goff said nearly half of the local workforce currently travels outside the county for employment, which results in a loss of local sales tax revenue. Goff said residential development often costs the county more in services than it generates in property tax, making industrial and commercial growth essential to balance the budget.
“Site readiness is an issue and I think that not only applies to the actual building location, but I think it applies to our infrastructure all around,” Goff said. “You know, these businesses are going to be looking at our roads, they’re going to be looking at our ISO rating, our fire protection, and all of those things before they make a decision.”
Robinson said he has established options with private landowners to ensure the county can move quickly when a business expresses interest in relocating. Robinson said he personally involves himself in the recruitment process, including assisting with utility issues to ensure companies have the resources they need to operate.
“I remember the last one we brought in we was having some sewer issues and I told them I said listen, if I got to come pump your sewer every day, you know, your sewer will be provided for,” Robinson said. “Not knowing that I would have to do that and ended up for about a little over six weeks every other day I was up there in a truck pumping the sewage out for this company till we got them hooked up.”
Goff said the county must leverage its natural resources to improve its tourism ranking, noting that White County currently ranks 66th out of 95 Tennessee counties in visitor spending. Goff said increasing tourism revenue is a way to diversify the tax base and reduce the financial burden on local property owners.
“Of that direct visitor spending that comes into White County, it’s about 14.5 million,” Goff said. “That’s an average of $118 for each household on their property tax.”
The candidates also addressed the condition of county roads, with Goff noting that it costs approximately $150,000 to pave a single mile. Goff said the current road department budget only allows for a small fraction of the county’s 897 miles to be paved annually, creating a significant backlog.
“It’s going to be a big challenge that’s going to the next executive’s going to have to tackle,” Goff said.
Robinson said the rapid pace of residential growth is adding new roads to the county system faster than the government can maintain the existing ones. Robinson said the primary challenge for the next administration will be identifying new funding sources to keep up with the infrastructure demands caused by that growth.