No Property Tax? Tennessean Aghast!!!

I was very amused to read an article in the Tennessean this morning regarding Spring Hill attempting to do away with their city's property tax. The tone brought back fond memories as it was so in line with their reporting on the state income tax. I can just hear the sputtering in their voice as they state:

• "Residents fret about services"
• "Spring Hill... stunned its residents"
• "Most Midstate cities have local property taxes because they need every source of revenue they can get their hands on"
• "some Spring Hill residents already are wondering whether the tax cut would hurt those services"
• "what's going to happen in eight to 10 years when stuff starts closing down? If you cut all the taxes out, what are you going to do then?"

Not until halfway through the article do we get to the points that other cities have no property tax (Mt. Juliet's city manager: "The truth of the matter is, counties live on property tax and cities live on sales tax.") and as to how they are intending to fund the services. You see, Spring Hill is one of the fastest growing areas out in these here parts. They rake in plenty from impact fees and commercial development. They still envision a budget of $545,000 after this tax goes away.

Mayor Danny Leverette sounds very much to my liking:

It's unfortunate that people cannot envision stepping outside the box, and that's what we do here in Spring Hill. You're always going to have your nay-sayers and your hindsight's-20/20ers and everybody that has a better way of doing something.

Maybe they can start a trend...