"Snark Bites" 04/26-05/02

4/30
TVA May Donate Fly Ash to Local Nonprofits
"Let them eat ash cakes," says Mayor Ragsdale

From APB reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. TVA is considering several fly-ash disposal options around Knoxville and Knox County, and several local nonprofit organizations recently cut out of Knox County's community grants budget could end up with the toxic stuff as a "gift."

That's just one of several disposal options the agency is considering. Others include filling the Knoxville Convention Center with it and selling it as bricks for use in the Minvilla Manor reconstruction project. TVA officials stress that no decision on a permanent site for the 5.4 million cubic yards of fly ash released from a raised storage pond on Dec. 22 has been reached.

"This has been a community disaster, and we feel it's important to share it community wide," said TVA President and CEO Kilmore Trout. "The more we can spread the coal flu ash out in the community, the more Knox citizens will take ownership of it, and the less they'll remember who was responsible for it. So we're considering a number of options."

But Trout acknowledges that he likes the idea of giving the ash to local nonprofits.

"These organizations, they recently took a big financial blow, and the fly ash could maybe make up for that," said Trout. "I know the ash isn't money, but they could barter it for services or build things out of it."

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale welcomed TVA's proposal, saying, "We just dumped a heap of grief on [the nonprofit organizations], so why shouldn't TVA?"

Responses from the nonprofit organizations slashed from Knox County's budget were not so sanguine, however.

"Are they crazy?" said Brian Salesky, general director and conductor of the Knoxville Opera. "Have you ever tried to play one of Vivaldi's concertos on a coal-ash violin? The pitch is all off..."



4/28
Ragsdale Unveils 'All Old Taxes' Budget
County must do less with more of the same, says mayor

From APB reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale unveiled this morning a $648 million budget, which features all old taxes.

"The good news is, this is an all-old-taxes budget," said Ragsdale. "The bad news is, citizens will be getting less service bang for their old tax bucks."

Ragsdale explained that "consistency" was the main reason for the all-old-taxes budget.

"In these uncertain economic times, when so much is changing before our very eyes, people take comfort in knowing that some things remain the same," said Ragsdale. "So it is with great pleasure that I announce that citizens of Knox County will again pay the same taxes they've always paid under my administration, while again receiving fewer services for them. No taxation without perpetuation is a consistent virtue of my administration. And since we're tapping the county's savings to do it, you'll be getting less for more for a long time to come."

The proposed spending plan, which must be approved by County Commission to take effect July 1, is actually up $7 million from the current year's budget, representing slightly more than a 1-percent increase.

The mayor explained that the increase was based on Knox County Chief Financial Officer John Troyer's ability to "squeeze more blood from a turnip - the ones that have just fallen off the truck are always easy targets."

Though the budget includes some spending cuts, Ragsdale is proposing dipping into the county's rainy-day funds to match revenues with expenditures. In all, Ragsdale anticipates tapping the county's various savings accounts for $20.4 million, nearly twice as much as the $11.8 million in this year's budget and an increase of $8.6 million.

Of the raid on the county's savings, Ragsdale would said only, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with the hand in the cookie jar. Nothing to see here, move along, move along."

The slightly-more-is-actually-less spending plan will fund 100 percent of the school system's budget, albeit only because deep cuts, including teacher layoffs, have already been made in the school budget. Similarly, community grants will be slashed in half, down to $1 million and money for equipment is down from $3.4 million to a mere $576,000 next year.

"This is a do-less-with-more-of-the-same budget," Ragsdale told a full house at the Bijou Theatre downtown. "This budget focuses on critical tax needs with no frills. We considered taxing frills..."



4/26
County Commission, Mayor Discuss Important Things
Something, anything, nothing among things discussed

From APB reports. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Reacting to rumors that important details of the county's 2010 budget would be leaked before County Mayor Mike Ragsdale's budget address on Tuesday, Knox County Commission called an extraordinary session early this morning and asked the mayor to attend. At the meeting, commissioners asked Mayor Ragsdale to promise that he would share any developments surrounding the county budget with the commission before they were released elsewhere.

The mayor insisted that he knew nothing of such rumors, but agreed that if there were anything to share, someone from his office would communicate something to commission first.

"I don't know what to tell you. I don't anything about these rumors," said Mayor Ragsdale at the meeting. "But you can rest assured, if anything happens, someone will tell you something."

"How can we be sure someone will tell us something, when it seems like no one's taking responsibility for nothing in this matter?" retorted Commissioner Paul Pinkston.

"I don't think it's fair to characterize this as, um, no one not taking responsibility for nothing," countered Commissioner Mike Hammond. "The mayor is someone. He's addressing the issue. That's something, not 'nothing.'"

"Well, if this is what he calls his 'something,' I'd hate to see his nothing," quipped Commissioner Greg "Lumpy" Lambert.

"I think we can all agree that no one wants to see.."