Sain holds town hall meetings

The first wave of town hall meetings held by Hardeman County Mayor Jimmy Sain took place last week in Whiteville and Toone. Sain provided updates on the county’s financial situation, addressed the lawsuit from Sheriff John Doolen, and answered the questions of the residents.
“It’s real important for people involved to know where the county is at financially,” Sain said.
Sain explained how funds from taxes were directed, how he felt the county arrived in the financial crisis it is facing now, and his goal for pulling it out of financial trouble. Sain told those in attendance the expense of the Criminal Justice Center was not being covered by revenue from wheel tax. As a result, the county has been making up the difference from the general fund. He told those in attendance budget cuts were made in order to prevent the county from raising taxes.
“It’s like what you would do personally. If you had financial troubles personally, you start looking at what you can cut and survive,” Sain said. “It’s either cut or raise taxes.”
Sain told citizens cuts in the budget were the source of legal action taken by Sheriff Doolen.
“We met with every elected official and everybody was on board with the cuts and what we wanted to cut with the exception of one and that was the sheriff,” Doolen said. “He wanted pay raises for his three secretaries to get $30,000 and we said no.

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