Comments on Knox County Budget Proposal - 2012

Yesterday, Knox County government released a new budget proposal.

My brother-in-law works for Tim Burchett and although I don't share his conservative political philosophy, I do give Burchett credit for some basic governance that makes sense to me.

Some of that common sense involves the political topic de jour: "fiscal responsibility."

I don't make a lot of money, so living within my means is important personally as well as philosophically. So, I support the move to find efficiencies in government.

However, I see increased funding in areas that I see siphoning off funds from important public ventures, like investment in public parks and recreation opportunities, public health services, and library services.

I went through the entire budget proposal, which is available online, and picked out some things I found interesting:

• Increase to "Public Safety" department (Knox County Sheriff's Office) which does not seem motivated to be thrifty
• "U.S. Soccer Complex" seems to have been zeroed out last year - I don't really care about soccer in West Knox County, but I do believe we need more public parks / sports fields to enhance public health
• cuts to park maintenance (speaks to public parks again)
• cuts to veterans office (Cuts to Veterans? Really?)
• cuts to office of neighborhoods (Is this the same entity as City of Knoxville's Office of Neighborhoods? - what is a community without neighborhood representation?
• Why did "Vector Control" go from 62,898 in 2010 to 7,000 in 2011 and 2012? For non-biologists out there - that's "disease vectors" like mosquitos. I already have enough mosquitos in my neighborhood. This seems like a major public health concern.
• What is the "Car Seat Program" - surely there are enough car seats for Knox County's toddlers.
• Why is there an "inoperable car lot" is that "impound lot?" If it's just a lot for inoperable cars, why do we have a lot full of inoperable cars?
• What is the difference between "Digitized Mapping" and "Geographic Information Systems?"
• FY12 9,905,053 for "Sheriff's Administration" Seriously? 9 million dollars for administration?
• Why was there a cut to "Detectives"
• Why was there a cut to "Narcotics"
• Why was there a cut to the recycling program? Recycling can save money - our neighbors in Sevier County the East even have a world-renowned composting facility that saves landfill space
• Why is there a 459,000 increase in the "Hotel/Motel Tax Fund" What is that?
• Why was "stormwater management - violation" phased out?
• Why is "Highway and Bridge Maintenance" over 7 million dollars, and increased over 200,000 for FY2012