The Knox County Mayor presented his last county budget of his eight year term limited career. A BrianHornback.Com source with experience in analyzing government budgets has provided me with the following observations about this budget and the previous budgets of this Mayor.
The County Mayor has taken the Knox County budget from $673 million to $819 million.
The County Mayor’s budget costs taxpayers $146 million more per year than when he took office in 2010, an increase of 21.6%.
During the same time period, Hamilton County’s (Chattanooga) budget grew by just 8.3% and Shelby County’s (Memphis) budget has grown by only 6.4%.
The County Mayor has grown government at a 36.7% higher rate than federal spending grew during President Barack Obama’s Presidency.
Knox County government has grown at 152% the rate of inflation.
Debt Obligation is at $656 million compared to the 2010 debt obligation of $613 million. It did rise as high as $691 million in 2011.
The Proposed 2019 Knox County Budget is here. The Adopted 2018 Knox County Budget is here.
Spot on.
If Burchett were a REAL conservative, he would’ve proposed CUTTING taxes. Instead, he gave into special interests and grew the size of the government. This is exactly how he would operate in DC. Give a dollar to a 24 year career politician and they’ll find MILLIONS of ways to spend it before giving it back to the people.
The Hamilton County numbers are particularly insightful because they’ve grown at a faster rate than Knox County but have kept their budget in check.