Developer Or Beggar
It's Getting Harder To Tell The Difference
| Many of us have been watching closely the attempts of
developer, Bob Overholt, to get his hands on tax payer money. Overholt
and company have tried every trick in the book to slicker local
governments into handing them millions of dollars. Fortunately county
officials showed a lot more since than four city councilmen when it came
to passing out free money to the developers. Unfortunately the
developer/beggar mentality is becoming more and more common. While Overholt has been the one in the spot light of late, he certainly isn't the only developer/beggar digging in the tax payers pocket. Just last year, local developer/beggar, Ed Loy, was able to quietly run both hands into the tax payers pockets to the tune of four to five million dollars. Two and a half million dollars from the state and two and a half million from Lenoir City. All tax money. This big hand out was to build a road through the middle of his proposed Creekwood development. With out the road there could be no development. Just like Overholt, Loy promises grand and wondrous things from his development for Lenoir City. It's the same foolish argument every time. The developer/beggar begs for the free money and claims he can take that money and just like a magician, turn it into even more money for local government. In fact there is another developer/beggar in Knoxville trying to his best to get tax money. Are there no honest developers? Have they no shame? Is their greed so great that they will stop at nothing for a dollar? Here's a thought for those Lenoir City officials who so desperately want to give away the tax dollars. Take the same nine million dollars Overholt wants and give every Lenoir City home owner five thousand dollars each to make improvements on their own homes. The improvements would increase their property values thus increasing their property taxes. At least they would have something to show for their higher taxes. Development is becoming a disaster of near biblical
propitiations for Loudon County. Lenoir City has been crushed and LCUB
has now had to borrow 24 million dollars just to provide services for
all the developer/beggars who have nested in the city. The county
schools claim that all the growth has caused them the need for 140
million dollars just to educate all the children the developers have
brought into our community including the children of all the illegal
aliens who have come hear to work for the developer/beggars. |