Zoe Watkins – zwatkins@tg.com
The Bedford County Finance Commission passed a motion on Tuesday allowing more funding to be put in place for school resource officers in all schools in the city and county.
The motion, proposed by Commissioner Tony Smith and supported by Commissioner Linda Yockey, called on state representatives to introduce a private local law that would allow the county to impose a motor vehicle tax in Bedford. .
It will be submitted to the committee on April 11th.
Smith recently cited a school shooting in Denver, Colorado, in which two administrators were injured, and a Covenant school shooting in Nashville, where six people were killed. SRO has been removed from the Denver School System budget. “Because there is no need,” says Smith.
“We need administrators who teach education. We don’t need them to do law enforcement work,” Smith said. Smith said Bedford County’s growth and needs are increasing every week, so keeping cops in school is especially important.
The school system will need nine more SROs, Smith explained, which will require “a chunk of money” among other needs of the county.
“Right now, due to the rate of inflation, we have no money to take care of the roads. We have no money to buy safety equipment. We have no money to buy a fire truck. What are you going to do with our youth center?” Smith said.
According to the Annotated Tennessee Code (TCA § 5-8-102), counties can impose a privileged tax on motor vehicles, commonly referred to as a wheel tax.
This tax is levied when two consecutive regular meetings of the county legislature pass resolutions by a two-thirds vote of the county legislature. Passage of a resolution by an ordinary majority of the county legislative body, subject to approval by the referendum provided for in the resolution. Or by “private act”.
These tax revenue distributions may be for private acts of collecting taxes or for county purposes specified in resolutions.
Commissioner Yockey explains: Taxpayer allows. As for the wheel tax, everyone pays their share if they can agree on wear and tear. ”
For example, if you’re driving by your house and there are eight cars in front of you, “At least they’re helping,” Yockey says.
As an example, from the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS), Cannon County made a similar resolution to impose a $10 wheel tax “for each such motorized vehicle during each registration year.”
Yockey also proposed using the proceeds from the sale of the EMA Building (1304 Railroad Ave), which was submitted to the Commission last July, to employ five SROs for 12 months at the city’s elementary schools. I reminded the committee of the resolution of The total cost of hiring five of her SROs is $378,000, and each of them will receive about $75,000 (depending on the SRO’s experience level), superintendent Tammy Garrett said. increase.
“It was denied. That’s fine,” Yockey said.
But “if you don’t know what’s going on ahead, this is happening 60 miles from here…” she said.
Yockey retired from the Bedford County school system after a long tenure at Cascade High School and a science teacher and alumni coach at Shelbyville Central High School.
“Having SROs in these schools makes a world of difference,” says Yockey. “We’re sitting halfway through the school with no SRO security. [March 27’s] Incident. “
Bedford has seven schools, most of which are primary schools, and does not have an SRO.
Smith added: how do i live with myself ”
“So all we have to do is protect ourselves,” Yockey said.
