County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the need for additional revenue in county government extends beyond White County.
Robinson met Thursday with East Tennessee leaders in the County Officials Association. Robinson said property taxes are the only avenue that counties have free rein over to generate revenue. Robinson said finding new avenues to create revenue comes up every year and was a big topic of discussion this year.
“We were looking at being able to recoup some of the real estate transfer tax that right now 100 percent goes to the state,” Robinson said. “Being able to recoup some of that, just trying to do some things to make the burden not so hard on the property owners and the business owners in our communities.”
Although local leaders can come up with different ways to generate revenue, Robinson said the final ok must come from the legislature. Robinson said extensive regulations make it almost impossible to come up with ideas that the state would allow.
“If it does not state in Tennessee Code Annotated that a county can do something, then it’s assumed we can’t,” Robinson said. “So we have to show that we have permission to do any kind of action that we take, whether it be taxation or anything. We can’t hit that middle ground like saying it doesn’t say we can’t, then well, if it dont say you can, it’s assumed you can’t. So that’s why we kind of hit on Nashville so hard every year, trying to get into Tennessee Code Annotated to allow us to be able to do our jobs and provide services for the citizens.”
Robinson said he realized that all of the counties in District Three are experiencing other similar issues.
“There was a lot of common things,” Robinson said. “Solid waste was a common issue amongst all of the counties. Obviously, tax revenues, growth, and how to handle the growth. There was several common problems that we all shared and discussed this year, maybe some best practices and such and so forth to try to overcome this. But at the end of the day, it’s what will the general assembly allow us to do.”
Robinson said the meeting helped leaders know what to ask for as a group ahead of the next general assembly.