In Your Face

Apparently, abandoning all common since and with total disregard to Loudon County tax payers, General Sessions/Circuit Court clerk, Lisa Niles is plowing full speed ahead with her law suit against the tax payers.

Niles is demanding nearly a quarter million dollars more for her department budgets. This would include 6 new full time employees additional part time positions and additional raises for all 17 staff members. The previous commission had already given Ms. Niles an additional $165,000.00 for her budgets for fiscal year 2014-2015 bringing her combined budgets to nearly $900,000.00.

In her last meeting with the budget committee, it was clearly explained to Ms. Niles that if she did follow thru with her law suit and if the court did award her what she was asking for, the only way the county could pay for her new employees and raises would be to raise taxes. Apparently, she could care less about higher taxes on the very citizens who just re-elected her weeks before she filed her law suit.

This is the third time in as many elections that Ms. Niles has sued or threatened to sue the tax payers for more money since she won the office in 2002. Just weeks after the 2006 election she did it. In 2010 just weeks after that election, she did it again and now here we are in 2014 in the same boat. There seems to be a pattern here. Obviously, the strategy is to sue just after the election and hope the voters will forget all about it by the next election. If Ms. Niles does force higher taxes on the citizens, it will be known as the Lisa Niles Tax Increase. The voters might not forget that by the next election. 

Even in her meetings with the budget committee, Ms. Niles provided documentation that showed that her work load had decreased significantly over the years yet her expenditures had exploded since she took office.

It's almost inexplicable that a local, elected official would show such callous disregard for the citizens she is suppose to represent. It's just a slap in the face of the tax payers.

Based on the document provided by Ms. Niles, her case load has decreased by 4% and her case filings have decreased by 18%, 2004-2013. However the clerical line in her Circuit Court budget has increased by 204% and the clerical line in her General Sessions Court budget has increased by 91% during the same time periods.

Below is some statistics pertaining to Ms. Niles offices.

 

12/8/14
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