State of city appears to be strong
If you think there’s a lot of waste in Hartselle’s city government, you might be pleasantly surprised.
After seeing this year’s State of the City Address delivered by Mayor Dwight Tankersley, it appears like there isn’t much waste in our city government. According to his speech, Hartselle’s budget breakdown is as follows: 40 percent for public safety, 14 percent for public works, 13 percent for parks and recreation, 8 percent for administration. The other portion of the budget is divided among the other smaller city departments.
The No. 1 priority for a city government is to provide for the protection and general welfare of its residents. When you allot two-fifths of the budget to public safety, you’re doing just that.
In the administration department, there are just seven employees, which include the mayor, city clerk and court clerk. I don’t know if any other city the size of Hartselle operates with that few employees in its administration department.
That shows good efficiency in city government. Tankersley isn’t the first mayor to have this kind of efficient department in Hartselle, but I’m glad to see that he’s carried on that tradition.
Another good sign that the city is in good financial shape is the city’s outstanding bond rating. It received an A+ from Standard and Poor’s and a A1 from Moody’s, both are about as good as you can get.
The other good news is that Hartselle’s sales tax revenue is starting to rebound. The first five months of this fiscal year have seen an increase in tax revenue over last year’s numbers. That’s a sign that our economy is showing signs of recovery. Hopefully, this trend will continue.
The city is looking to develop the area around Cracker Barrel to draw more retail to that area. It is also trying to lure more business to the area with its new business park off of Byrd Road near the current industrial park on Thompson Road.
There’s plenty more for Hartselle to do, but I think it’s fair to say that the state of our city is good.
We hope and pray that our city leaders will continue to make the right decisions going forward and create a city that we can be proud of.
Brent Maze is the managing editor of the Hartselle Enquirer.