Monday afternoon, Lenoir City school director, Jeanne Barker released a building proposal and a cost estimate for what she wants to build. Of course it's just guesses and made up numbers based on $350.00 per sq ft to build. Aikens has been totally silent on his community center/senior citizens center, where, when, how much, etc. Lenoir City school board member, Lacy Murray, posted to Facebook page that she supports the tax hike and will be voting for it. 

What it really comes down to is trust. I dare say there are very few people inside or outside the city that trusts most of their city officials and especially the mayor any more. They've heard too many promises broken before. For instance, after the defeat of the sales tax hike in 2018, Aikens said, he would abide with  the voters decision. He certainly hasn't kept that promise. Aikens said the city would make a contribution to the 911 board for NCIC services. He welched on that agreement. He told the city residents, the city had to pass the Rain Tax, which was not true, and that the rain Tax money would go to major storm water improvements in the city, never happened. And the list could go on and on. 

Even the school board apparently didn't trust the mayor to actually give them half the money if the voters passed the tax hike. The city had to adopt a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to make sure Aikens and the council kept their word to give the schools half of the loot.

What's the old saying? Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you.

I think the voters feel they've been fooled enough.