Electronic-waste event on Saturday

The county, city, the West Knoxville Optimist Club and the Knoxville Volunteer Rescue Squad are partnering up this Saturday for the “plug-in your community” electronic-waste recycling event.

Yeah, that's what I said, too. Huh? Wha-?

Well, apparently you can take all your old computers, printers and other electronic junk and drop it all off Saturday – rain or shine – between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. at Chilhowee Park in the Midway Parking lot on North Beaman Street.

The event is free and includes drive-thru service, so you don't have to hang out. Those who participate are eligible to win a wide-screen TV from Best Buy, which you'll eventually no doubt be lugging down to the next electronic-waste recycling event in a year or two.

Please note that you cannot drop off refrigerators, air condition units, smoke detectors, light bulbs, stoves and electronic equipment containing hazardous chemicals.

For more information, click right smack here.

Or you can just throw all the junk off your porch and into your neighbor's yard in the middle of the night. Not that I'd know anything about that.

Ramblings, yappings from da Porch

So, awhile back I got tickets to check out Diamond Dave and the boys in Nashville later this month. And today, I see that they're playing in Knoxville on Aug. 4. What the deuce? Someone suggested I sell the Nashville tickets and hold off, but I figure the band will have broken up by then.

A couple things/feel like rambling.

Best Buy should rename its Geek Squad the “We Suck/Suck Squad.”

The other day I posted about a proposal from the Charter Review Committee that would require the pension board to increase its membership to include finance experts (whatever that means) and to send its annual operating budget to the mayor and County Commission for approval. Well, as one pension board member noted to me yesterday, four commissioners and the mayor sit on the pension board, so aren't they pretty much doing that already?

My Twitter account got one of those viruses where it sends messages to contacts. If you got one it wasn't from me. I think the problem has been fixed.

County Mayor Tim Burchett over this weekend was in Athens, metal detecting with his former finance director, Burton Webb. He took me metal hunting with him once. Just goes to show that he'll hang out with anyone. Heh.

There's some rumors going around that the school folks have six votes on the County Commission to raise taxes to fund the system's proposed $35 million education plan. At this point, that's BS. That could change, but I doubt it. (At the most, they'd pass a waaaay slimmed down version, but I don't even see that happening.) All sides will meet May 22 to talk more about it. Expect someone to have a substitute plan in place before then. (No, this has nothing to do with a slimmed down version.)

And speaking of school stuff. The other day I saw a large, dark bird circling above the Andrew Johnson Building. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything.

Finally, I know it's unorthodox, but taking a whiz on campfires always seems to extinguish them. What say we send a couple hundred homeless and a couple dozen kegs down to the mulch fire and see if we can't put this thing out.

Property tax collection story notes

I've got a story in today's paper about the increase in property tax collections.

I'll post a couple things here that weren't in the story because of length.

First, congrats go to John Duncan III, (left) who took over the county trustee’s office in September, and his crew for their hard work.

(You know, making phone calls, cashing and depositing checks, etc. No, I’m kidding. They worked hard. I'd hope.)

But, as the county administration – which doesn't oversee his office – said: Folks should remain cautiously optimistic about the state of Knox finances.

Will more money come in? Or is this it?

So far Duncan's office has collected roughly $231 million (this includes about $3 million that came in after the Feb. 28 deadline, but was postmarked before then). But, the Mike Ragsdale administration, which put together the county's current spending plan, expected to reap $247 million in property tax collections.

I asked Duncan what he thought about the projections, and it would have been easy to take a shot, say they were too high. But he didn't. (I don't know if they are or not. I expect they're probably about right.)

Instead, he pretty much said his office will “blow them out of the water.” He pointed out that this time last year, the office collected almost $200 million and then ended the fiscal year in late June with $235 million.

Now, I don't think he's going to collect another $35 million between now and then (because not everyone is going to pay up). But, I also figure he's going to collect more than the $17 million needed to make up the difference to what he's received now and what the budget calls for.

(The office also gets a $7 million payment from KUB, so, really, we're down to $10 million.)

Another thing.

A little more than a month ago Duncan partnered with three of the area's largest banks. It's a common-sense and long-overdue move, but for some reason Knox County wasn't doing it.

Duncan changed that. And it paid off. (Note: last week I got paid by the cliche. This week it’s by the pun.)

Apparently, taxpayers also liked this convenience. They opted to pay their bills – a combined $4.3 million – at one of the 50 or so branches ( with BB&T, First Tennessee and Home Federal)

Compare that to the $6.2 million collected at the Farragut satellite office (which collected the most tax dollars out of the satellite offices). But, Farragut was open throughout the tax season, which runs from September through the end of the year.

The bank branches were open for a little more than a month.

Another move he made – and something else not done under his predecessor – was send out two notices. The first in October, the second in late January. (The second one apparently cost $16,000, but there’s probably a savings in there if the trustee’s office doesn’t have to go after delinquent bills. I'd hope.)

Here’s a few other figures for the number nerds out there.

Duncan’s office billed folks for a combined $240 million. The county expected $247 million. But, the county numbers also included:

• $3.48 million in delinquent taxes
• $2.8 million from taxes collected through the courts
• $1.7 million in interest and penalties
• $7 million from KUB under a PILOT plan

Duncan’s office doesn’t have the breakdown yet, but they haven’t received the KUB payment, which it will in April when it’s due.

The projected $247 million is sent to the county and divided three ways:

• $105.7 million goes to the general fund
• $110.8 million to the schools
• $30.8 million to debt

Duncan’s office also gets a small cut. The rest will head to the reserve tank or go toward paying off debt, which has the folks on the sixth floor of the county’s side of the Deathstar running scared.

And speaking of those folks . . .

Just because tax collections are up, the administration doesn’t want to spend. And it’s still prepared to cut back, which includes laying off employees.

Both county Mayor Tim Burchett and his chief of staff, Dean Rice, said – despite the bump – county government is too big.

“We don’t feel it changes the direction of the administration,” Rice said. “Government (still) needs to be run as efficiently as possible.” (If it’s possible, he should seriously trademark that quote. I actually had it written before he said it.)

Added Burchett: “The public is demanding that we spend less.”

Personally, I'd like a check from the county if it has money left over.

So yeah, spend less.

On a side note, any company in the Knoxville Yellow Pages that says it will fix computers "24/7" is a fraud. Don't use them. Boycott them. Whatever. Best Buy sucks, too, by the way. My computer went down last night, and none of them came through. Lying *$&#@)*. That's why I'm late to post.