Movement on major issues, like it or not
The past week was, to put it mildly, an eventful one for Columbus, both in local government offices and under the Gold Dome in Atlanta.
To begin with the latter, the bill to put a possible phase-out of the city’s property tax assessment freeze before local voters passed in an overwhelming Senate vote. If Gov. Nathan Deal signs it, the issue will probably be on the general election ballot in November.
The only “Nays” in the 52-2 vote came from Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, and Sen. Mike Crane, R-Newnan, who is running for the 3rd District Congress seat soon to be vacated by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. McKoon said his opposition was based in part on the possibility that if voters approve “thawing” the freeze, the outcome could be challenged in court and “there is a strong likelihood the tax freeze for all Muscogee County residents will be immediately repealed.” That’s both an unconvincing argument and an unlikely scenario for a proposal that, if approved, would do quite the opposite. (The freeze, remember, has already been challenged in court and its essential legality upheld.)
Crane’s opposition is far more absurd; at least McKoon represents the city affected. Whatever the Newnan senator’s ideological (or, more likely, strictly political) objections, his vote brings two points to mind: (1) the Senate did not vote to lift the Columbus freeze, but only to “allow” local citizens to decide whether or not to do so; and (2) state lawmakers, from Newnan or anywhere else, should have no business deciding strictly local issues anyway.
Closer to home, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s proposed FY2017 budget includes a plan to increase starting pay for police officers to more than $40,000. Columbus has long faced the problem of training and educating law enforcement officers only to have them lured to other cities (or other jobs) for better pay.
The plan, which has the approval of Police Chief Ricky Boren, does not add to the police department budget, but takes money for 16 of the 100 officer positions funded by the 2008 sales tax to pay for the raises. Boren, not surprisingly, would like for the money to come from somewhere other than his personnel pool, but the department is “getting into dire straits when it comes to hiring police officers," he said. "It’s getting harder and harder to hire young officers and retain them with what we pay.”
If all goes well, the chief added, “I will be back before council and will be asking you to fund those 16 positions.”
The other upper-case item in the mayor’s proposed budget is full funding of the Columbus Aquatic Center at the $1.2 million private bidders and the city’s own parks and recreation director have all said it will cost to operate it on a full schedule. After a year of the issue being tied in a political Gordian knot, an exasperated Tomlinson has obviously decided just to hack through it.
Whether or not that resolves the standoff remains to be seen. But nothing else was working.
This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Movement on major issues, like it or not."