Saturday, February 02, 2008

Sheriff's Deputies Find NO Friend In Karen Carson

For those of you that are employed by the Knox County Sheriff's Department or for those of you, like me that support the men and women that protect and defend our community against the bad guys and girls.

You have no friend in Karen Carson, a candidate for Knox County School Board - Fifth District.

Not only did she reveal in a questionaire that she opposed the Sheriff's Department Pension when it passed. But, she would support it being placed back on referendum to be abolished.

A friend of the Sheriffs Department forwarded a page (to Brian's Blog) of a recently submitted questionaire completed and submitted by Carson.

Question 9 asked "Would you consider asking the county to readdress the recently implemented sheriff's office pension plan if it meant more tax dollars could go to education?"

Karen Carson responded "While I do not think the pension plan was a sound decision, given the reality of Knox County Government revenue projections, it was approved by referendum. I think the wording of the referendum was confusing and only a small percentage of eligible Knox County voters actually voted to approve it, but it did pass. If the County commission determines that it cannot support adequate funding for education because of the additional funding requirements of the of the Sheriff's pension plan, I would support another referendum to reconsider the pension plan changes."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Brian are you saying lets just raise taxes and throw money at the problem? The County from what I been told is approx 1/2 billion in bonded debts. Approx ten percent of budget goes to paying the debt. Their is a fine line between want verse need! There is a reason people are loading their Uhauls and moving from Knox. They cannot afford to live here! It is clearly evident development after development with 5-10 for sale signs at the entrance. Look in the paper at the countless forclosures in this COUNTY. Sadly people literally are sending their children to bed hungry cause they cannot afford to feed there children and pay their morgage. So as a Republican you say raise the taxes to help the few? We need to work on a budget. That means saying and doing tough things.If our bond rating gets lowered with our impounding debt we get an even heavier load! Remember service on a debt does not build schools or libraries or roads..Brian I respect your opinion but I differ strongly.As I write this blog at 10:16pm tonight somewhere in Knox County their is a young child who cannot fall asleep because they are going to bed on an empty stomache and in the next room is the hard working parents that cannot sleep because the house is facing foreclosure. As a devout Republican I believe we as a Republican Party cannot fall back on the idiology of tax and spend. Bigger government a bloated golden parachute. You might believe in Tax and Spend. I believe in budget wisely and do not bend. This County needs to be run like a business not a political piggy bank. Just my opinion!

Anonymous said...

Ohh this blog has me so rattled. Let me further add this. Gen. Phd. Thomas Barraga a retired state assembly member from NY put it best with this quote..."People from my district come to me all the time telling me we need things. I tell them we need lower taxes and most of the things they want aren't needs.Like playgroungs street lights plants and ectra. Next thing you know my office gets a petition and a dozen walk ins complaining how we need stuff. So I go to the capitol building tell them what my constituants are asking for and they get it. Six months later I drive by and see my constituant who fought for all these great things backing the Uhaul and moving. I say ' hey how can you be moving?' The person responded that 'you politicians are all out of touch.' Barraga responded ' we got so many great new things in the district, the new playground, the plants, and the streetlights..." and the neighbor cuts Barraga off and goes "and thats another thing you get all this stuff we don't need and now I can't afford the taxes to live here!"

danyc

Brian Hornback said...

Anonymous and dannyc,

You are missing the point. The Sheriff's Dept pension plan was a plan similar to KPD existing plan. Why should a KPD officer get a huge pension while a Sheriffs Deputy gets less than a $1000.00 a month after putting their lives on the line. 24/7/365 for 30 years?

Our former Sheriff spent over 25 years in the department, 17 years as Sheriff and had he not received the pension approved by the voters after he paid medical insurance, he would have taken home $1000.00 a month.

Another point you are missing is that the deputies pay into this plan. It is not just public tax dollars.

Your comments are similar to the comments of the downtown politicians. Comments that do not adequately reflect the entire picture.

Anonymous said...

OK, then thank you for clarifying that for me. I am new to town. However, that being said few businesses offer a pension anymore and most people have to wait till there 65 to get a pension. Times are changing. But thanks for clarifying...Dannyc

Brian Hornback said...

No problem. Good luck on the race that you are involved with on Tuesday.