Quality Of Life
| Over the recent holiday period, I had the
opportunity, or stated more appropriately, the misfortune of traveling
outside our county boundaries, from west Knoxville to Nashville. All I
can say is, why on earth would anybody want to travel to these places
much less, live there. The traffic, the people, the congestion, the
general eyesore of businesses and homes stacked on top of each other.
It's like being in a madhouse. Sadly, there are those in our county, our
cities, our communities who would like to bring such chaos here. But
why? If you ask some local politicians, they'll give you a quick answer, TAXES. Politicians are always wanting more money. Never mind how much they throw away, just give us more. As an elected official, my decisions are made on how anything will effect our quality of life. Will it be made better or worse by my/our decisions? In my opinion, what we see in west Knox is the definition of a poor quality of life. What we have here in Loudon County, in my opinion, is a high quality of life. Loudon County has the fourth lowest property tax rate in the state at $1.80. Knox county's rate is $2.32, one of the highest in the state. That makes Knox county's property tax rate nearly 30% higher than ours. But that can't be right. Knox county has all that development, all those homes and apartments, all that traffic yet a much higher tax rate and a much lower quality of life than ours. I know Lenoir City officials have gotten themselves into a lot of debt and spending is out of control and Loudon is quickly following down the same path. But Loudon County is in sound financial condition and not in need of more or higher taxes. It's my hope that we can keep Loudon County's high quality of life intact for as long as possible by carefully managed growth and controlled spending. After all, who really wants to live in a hole like Knoxville has become? |
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1/7/19