Candidates for Overton County Executive debated the necessity of property tax increases and budget management during a Republican primary forum Tuesday.
The forum featured candidates Austin Dodson and Gregg Nivens. The discussion focused heavily on the financial pressures facing the county following a recent tax rate adjustment.
“Our citizens are struggling right now,” Dodson said, “Our last tax increase has really hit home with a lot of people and just having that open mind, open spirit to get in there and listen to people will go a long way, I believe.”
Nivens said he has served on the county commission for 24 years and previously retired from the Corps of Engineers after 35 years. Nivens said several commissioners encouraged him to run because the county requires an executive with experience.
“I’ve met a lot of people, a lot of good people that sit here,” Nivens said. “They’ve got a lot of, they want to know exactly what we’re looking for to help the county.”
Incumbent Stephen Barlow did not participate because of a medical issue.
Dodson said he is currently graduating from Tennessee Tech as a nurse practitioner and felt called to run because he believes the county needs a conservative leader to invest wisely. Dodson said the county must pursue responsible growth because the cost of goods and services has risen for every county.
“We need to make sure that we’re being a good steward of the taxpayer dollar whenever we’re there,” Dodson said. “The previous year we was about 2.24% on our tax rate and we lowered it to about 1.33.”
Nivens said the county faced significant challenges with employee retention because pay was not competitive with surrounding areas. Nivens said the commission implemented a three-dollar raise for law enforcement and emergency services to prevent employees from leaving for higher-paying jobs in other counties.
“It hurts those and you look at it and you wonder how, how a family, it’s hard raising a family on, on what we were paying them,” Nivens said. “And if you don’t, in, we increased some of the holidays and tried, tried our best where we could, where we could hold our employees and it seems to be working.”
Nivens said the public expects services such as paved roads, trash pickup, and emergency services, which creates a baseline cost for doing business. Nivens said the state controller previously warned the commission that if they failed to pass a balanced budget, the state would take control and cut all discretionary spending.
“He said, ‘You’ve got one responsibility as a county commissioner, to come up here and pass a balanced budget and to make sure that you’re providing services to the public that the general public cannot otherwise provide,’” Nivens said. “So he said, ‘If you can’t do that, we’re going to take that out of your hands.’”
Dodson said his goal is to work toward lowering property taxes by cutting waste and increasing transparency. Dodson said the county executive is responsible for setting the tone and should have meeting agendas ready for the public several days in advance.
“I want to make it easy and accessible for people to be able to get ahold of the agenda, have someone that’s going to be there to set the tone and make sure that we are getting items addressed on the agenda in a timely manner and that we are actually getting work done in Overton County and not just sitting in meetings and talking about it,” Dodson said.
Dodson said he has identified instances of waste, including a project at the Monroe Community Center that he said went $44,000 over budget. Dodson said the county must plan more strategically to avoid costly mistakes at the expense of the taxpayer.
“Whenever I’m talking about waste is we have to make sure that we are accounting appropriately and making sure that when we go in to do a project, that we have things, you know, go above budget sometimes,” Dodson said. “But we went over $44,000 on our Monroe Community Center and where did that money go and why, why did it go there?”
The Republican primary for Overton County Executive takes place Tuesday.