Sumner Taxpayers Alliance

05/14/2026

Today's Email Newsletter: Sumner County Gazette - 5/14/26 Edition - “Should Sumner County be more like Nashville?”

Hi Folks,

Well, the May primaries are done, next up are the August General elections for the folks who won the primaries, AND, the primaries for all of the State and Federal offices. But this update is NOT about elections, we all could use a break, right? While more on elections will be coming soon, this update is about something very different, and it’s a real doozy!

Also, although the title of this update may sound like a rhetorical question, we really would like to hear your answer to the question. Think about it as you read, and let’s get into this...

Now, we don’t believe much in coincidences. When similar or related things oddly coincide, it’s either the good Lord working in his mysterious ways, OR, it’s some “human” messing around with things. We’re not sure what you call it when three – or maybe more – things happen simultaneously, maybe it’s the good Lord saying, “wake up people.” But that’s what happened that led to this update. Now, back to the story.

Who out there reading this update is a customer of Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation, CEMC? Well, in the May 2026 edition of “The Tennessee Magazine” published by CEMC, which we received on Friday May 8th, there is an article titled, “The claims made by developers of Tennessee towns.” CEMC customers should get a copy in the mail or maybe electronically, but for those of you who didn’t get it or don’t get it, here is a link to it - https://www.tnmagazine.org/the-claims-made-by-developers-of-tennessee-towns/

Now before we get into how this relates to Sumner Taxpayers and this update, let us first say that personally we have the utmost respect, admiration, and appreciation for the work that CEMC and its employees perform! That has been our experience with CEMC historically, as well as during this past winter’s ice storm. It also seems to be the general consensus of the folks that we have spoken with. However, let us know if you’ve had a different experience.

So, we get this article in the mail, and we read it. Basically, the article is a compilation of newspaper advertisements from across Tennessee during the 1800’s, but prior to the war of northern aggression. As I understand it, this time period was when many Tennessee towns were first being established. All of the ads pertained to land developers trying to entice people to move to their developments. From the article, “These investors also bought advertisements that – through truth, exaggeration or lies – made their developments sound like the best place in the world to live.” Does this sound familiar? Keep reading, we guarantee that you’ll find this interesting, maybe amusing and perhaps a bit infuriating!

That was Friday May 8th, on Saturday May 9th was the monthly breakfast meeting of the Sumner County Republican Party. Due to the recent redistricting of US Congressional Districts in Tennessee, a change in line-up change of the speaker(s) was made. We’ll probably be talking more about how this redistricting impacts Sumner County in the future. In the meantime, if you haven’t seen the new map, you can view it here.

https://comptroller.tn.gov/content/dam/cot/pa/images/map-page-icons/2026USCongressNEW.jpg

NOTE: MOST of Sumner County is now in the 7th Congressional District NOT the 6th District, which also includes MUCH of Nashville/Metro Davidson County! Aren’t you glad that our Congressional representation also represents Nashville? Ding, ding, ding, we’re getting closer to why we titled this update the way that we did.

The change to the speaker line-up included the addition of current 7th District Congressman Matt Van Epps. Seems like a nice enough guy, maybe a bit too much of the “company man” mentality for us, but we’ll reserve judgement until after we get to sit down with him and understand him.

And here’s another coincidence that made those bells really start ringing louder. The next speaker, after our new Congressman, was “Forward Sumner” President and CEO Chris Taylor. You can see who Forward Sumner is and what they say that they do – here - https://forwardsumner.org/why-invest-forward-sumner/leadership/

If the name Chris Taylor sounds familiar, it should. He was the then-recently retired 30-year NASHVILLE Deputy Police Chief, AND Sumner County Commissioner that ran for the Sumner County Mayor position in 2022. We won’t rehash all of the issues that Mr. Taylor expected us to forget, when he asked us to vote for him to be our next Mayor. But if you’re interested, let us know, we can send you all of the old news articles and write-ups that we did to help prevent him from becoming Mayor.

There is one thing however that we know most of you will remember, AND that we just can’t forget to remind you all about - Sumner County Budget Presentation Jan 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8C8KKFS8A4&t=324s

This January 2015 video was made by then County Commissioner Paul Goode AND Chris Taylor. The two of them spent 28 minutes talking out of both sides of their mouths about how they didn’t raise our taxes by 24%. BUT that the increased taxes were needed to fund all sorts of things. Interestingly, in the 24% increase was money to pay for “school resource officer in ALL schools.”

Why is this point so egregious? Well, understand that in the 2019 tax increase of 17% that these two individuals also helped foist upon us taxpayers, was again a line item to “pay for a School Resource Officer in every school!” Now normally we’d leave it at that, BUT, do you know when Sumner County Schools finally got an SRO in every school? Sometime after 2023. So where did all of that urgently needed extra tax revenue go if it didn’t pay to put an SRO in ALL schools for all of those years? Let us know if we somehow missed our rebate check in the mail.

Now during Chris Taylor’s talk to the attendees of the Sumner County Republican breakfast, which by the way were mostly members of the Sumner County Republican Freedom Caucus, he spoke repeatedly about what he called “Smart Development” AND how to use “taxpayer funded” financing methods. He specifically mentioned the Indian Lake development, which was financed using a TIF -Tax Increment Financing.

After the meeting, we questioned Chris, “whatever happened to the investigation into the mishandling of the Indian Lake TIF.” He had no answer. Then we talked about the Industrial Development Board meeting where members were discussing Beretta’s relocation to Gallatin, and how it was stated, “well Beretta didn’t hire the number of people that they said they would, and they don’t pay what they said they would, but it’s good for our image.” Again, he had no meaningful response. All of this from the guy leading Sumner County’s Economic and Workforce Development office.

Frankly, it’s an insult to the hard-working citizens of Sumner County when their elected and appointed representatives are more concerned about vanity (aka image) than fiscal responsibility and accountability! But how and why did Chris Taylor go from Nashville cop, to candidate for County Mayor, to head of Forward Sumner? And why did he speak at the Sumner County REPUBLICAN breakfast, where County Mayor John Isbell gave the opening prayer?

Now for the final coincidence. At Monday night’s Legislative Committee meeting there was an agenda item to approve a contract with the Greater Nashville Regional Council (GNRC) for “Planning Assistance.” The cost? $150,000. By the way, that's AFTER we pay - and by "we" we mean Sumner COUNTY pays nearly $45,000 in dues. That's in addition to all the cities that pay an additional $129,000 in dues for a grand total of $174,603 coming out of Sumner County to GNRC for 2027. (We've got lots more about GNRC, but will hold that for another time.)

Per a letter from the GNRC, “Sumner County has requested technical assistance from the GNRC to develop two planning documents including a strategic plan and an asset management plan. The strategic plan will establish shared goals and objectives of county management, prioritize county initiatives and partnerships, and identify existing and potential tools and resources to aid in plan implementation. The asset management plan will include an inventory of county-owned capital assets with information about their location, age, and condition, recommendations for repairing or replacing existing assets or constructing new assets, and guidance for implementing plan recommendations.” If that doesn’t sound like political pychobabble, what does?!

For those of you interested, here is the link to find out more about the GNRC - https://www.gnrc.org/298/Board-of-Directors We’re sure that you’ll be comforted by the fact that Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown AND Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell are 2 of the 13 people on the GNRC Board of Directors. NOT!

During “public comments” two very informed (and good looking :o)) Sumner Taxpayers spoke about concerns related to involvement with and the use of the GNRC. Thankfully, the four attending committee members voted unanimously to defer the item until next month’s meeting.

Now let’s try to connect all of these random “dots” and wrap this thing up, starting at the bottom and working our way back to the top.

Sumner County does not have BUT absolutely needs to have a comprehensive computerized asset maintenance and management system (CMMS). Case in point, the General Operations Committee of the County Commission has been asking for a list of County Properties since 2022. Good financial management practices require it, AND Tennessee law REQUIRES it.

https://www.ctas.tennessee.edu/eli/capital-assets

https://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/reference/capital-asset-accounting-system

So how come Sumner County doesn’t have and use a CMMS? Heck, Sumner County requires all local companies to report – AND pay taxes on – all Capital Assets! All we can say is that in the past when we posed such questions to the former County Executive (Anthony Holt) we were told, “you just don’t understand...” He was right, we don’t understand. How can government ask taxpayers to do things, while not doing the same things?! The idea that we have to be having this discussion is absurd! Sumner County owns dozens of properties - not including the school properties - and hundreds of physical assets. What have County Mayors/Executives been doing?

It isn't a mere suggestion to keep an inventory of County assets. It's required by law. Tennessee law states in part in TCA 5-6-108 (1) regarding the County Mayor's powers and duties, "Have the care and custody of all the county property ..." How can you take care of something or have the custody of it when you don't know what you have?

The fact that the current County Mayor (Executive) John Isbell is attempting to implement a management system is a good start. But does it seem “odd” to any of you that this urgent need to spend $150,000 comes right during the formulation of the 2026-2027 budget process? Why isn’t this request in the mayor’s 2026-2027 budget along with ALL of the supporting information?

Then, why would Sumner County want to involve the GNRC, especially since while the now Mayor was seeking to become Mayor in 2022, he told us specifically he would get Sumner County OUT of the GNRC? Now pulling out of the GNRC might be impossible, due to State law, BUT why pay GNRC a premium price to implement something that is a standard operating procedure for every company on Earth?

Also, could it be that GNRC, being one of 9 similar “regional councils” across Tennessee, already has a CMMS sitting “on the shelf” somewhere and the $150,000 is just a “legal” way to funnel money around? Hmmm?

Also, who’s going to maintain the System going forward? Sumner County hired an Information Technology manager, several years ago. Certainly, a MS Access or SQL database system can’t be that hard to build, and maintain. But then there’s the financial management aspect of the system and how do you get two entities to play nice together. Sumner’s Financial Director reports to the County Commission, while the IT director reports to the County Mayor. Holt was right, we just don’t understand.

The next most poignant question would be why involve the GNRC in any “strategic planning” for the County? Do all of you really want a bunch of "greater Nashville" bureaucrats setting the tone and direction for Sumner County? Remember it was the GNRC and the people behind them who wanted to spend multiple BILLIONS OF DOLLARS – like 9 BILLION, for starters – for a “regional mass transit” system.

A quick metric on how well – or not – mass transit systems work is called the Farebox Recovery Ratio. A FBRR of 50% means that 50% of the total operating cost is paid for by the actual users. New York City system has one of the most mature transit systems, and their FBRR of somewhere around 25-30%. Chicago’s FBRR sits somewhere around 15-16%. Atlanta’s FBRR sits at around 20%. Check it out for yourself here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farebox_recovery_ratio

So GNRC promotes more “growth,” then promotes a transit system where 80% PLUS of the operating expense is paid - subsidized - by non-users. What does that sound like to you? To us it sounds more and more like the liberal BS that ultimately leads to socialism.

Next up: How and why is the person who helped push through the 2014 and 2019 property tax increases running an agency, Forward Sumner, that has as its mission Economic Development, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Workforce Development. Perhaps the ultimate question is what direction is considered to be “forward,” and by WHO? Are higher tax bills, more congested streets, and eye-sore housing complexes considered to be moving Sumner County “forward?” Are the majority of citizens OK with the “direction?”

And finally, whatever happened to independent people, working either as individuals or in small groups, independently pooling their money and taking risks by investing and developing areas as described in the CEMC article? You all know the answer. You can’t funnel millions and millions of dollars of tax dollars and create thousands of bureaucratic jobs for your “political buddies” working in non-governmental organizations (NGO) and public-private partnerships (PPP).

One last thought, after having witnessed all of the changes over the last 15 years in Sumner County, have your yearly taxes - property, sales, and other “fees” - gone up or down? So how exactly is the system of “government” being involved in so many aspects of how development happens helping YOU?

Which brings us full circle back to, should Sumner County be more like Nashville?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and give it your consideration. If you have any questions or comments, we love to hear from you.

God bless, Kevin
Kevin Baigert
SUMNER TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE
Email: [email protected]
www.Facebook.com/SumnerTaxpayers

The farebox recovery ratio (also called fare recovery ratio, fare recovery rate or other terms) of a passenger transportation system is the fraction of operating expenses which are met by the fares paid by passengers. It is computed by dividing the system's total fare revenue by its total operating....

05/06/2026

Today's Email Newsletter: Sumner County Gazette - 5/6/26 Edition - The Results Are In & What's Next

Greetings, All, on the morning after!

First, we want to thank all of you who were engaged in this process. You deserve a pat on the back, because you are in the minority. According to the Sumner County Elections Commission, just 10.54% of registered voters participated in yesterday’s primary. While early voting was ahead of four years ago, election day turnout was much lower.

Thanks goes to the candidates, too. It takes a lot of work and guts to run a campaign and we appreciate those who step up to do it.

Second, to give you a snapshot of the results from yesterday, we’ve updated the spreadsheet we gave you once the ballot was finalized back in February.

See chart below

If you want to dive into this spreadsheet further, you can click on this link for access to the spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HvLR4KWDqnKYvwCUNP-XxBgjBlXfcZww4XLSdriX0YE/edit?usp=sharing

Or, you can go to the elections pagehttps://www.votesumnertn.org/uploads/files/f713be6c4c9d2401953862b053910ae54a7f41a8.pdf for the source document. Our spreadsheet is based on the information available this morning, and could possibly be updated as the results are considered “unofficial” until they are certified by the Sumner County Elections Commission.

Where there were contested races in the Republican Primary, we’ve highlighted the winners in green and included the available vote totals for every race, so you get an idea of the turnout for various positions.

So, now that we know yesterday’s results, what’s next? Well, the successful Republican candidates will go on to the August 6, 2026, general election, with early voting from Friday, July 17 to Saturday, August 1. It gets a little confusing, because that ballot will also include Republican and Democrat primaries for federal and state positions, including U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, governor, and the party’s state executive committee members. We’ll get into that more in future emails, and stay focused on yesterday’s results with some observations a little further into this email, because…

Third, we want to do a shout-out to candidates in the Republican Primary for County Commission District 12. The two candidates, Joe Matthews and Matt Campbell, had spoken to each other and made a mutual agreement to run clean campaigns. They both lived up to that promise, and we want to share their Facebook exchange that took place Tuesday evening:

Joe Matthews on FB:
“Hello Everyone! Polls are closed the votes have been counted. Matt and I ran positive campaigns for this primary election.
The unofficial vote totals are in. I want to say Congratulations to Matt for his win! Looks like 535 votes were cast in the 12th District. Matt got 324 votes and I got 208 and 3 write in votes.
Thank you for the people who took their time to vote!!! I want to say a special thank you for all the people that did contribute and help me in this primary election.
The bright side for me personally is I do not have to run another campaign for the General election!😃
Matt has to run facing Sarah Hilton, a Democratic Opponent. He is going to work hard like he did in the primary. He will need your support to assure a win.
I Wish Matt good luck in the General Election!
Again, I want to say thank you for all who supported me!
GOD Bless you all!”

Matt Campbell’s response to Joe Matthews:
“Thank you Joe C Matthews. I have made a new friend in you brother. You truly have taught me a few lessons during this campaign. I respect you tremendously. I’m proud that you and I ran a positive campaign and we kept it clean and hope others would take notes. I’m a call away if you need anything. You have an amazing wife and mother. Truly enjoyed them today.”

What a wonderful example for all of Sumner County! It can be done – to treat each other with respect, during and after an even hotly contested campaign. We should be able to do that, too, with all issues where we disagree.

The struggle is real, even for us. How do we call out what people are doing, that seems to be in conflict with the best interests of “We the People,” but still be civil and do it in a Christ-like way? This exchange was a real bright spot among the darkness that took place in this election.

Now, with that said, let us clear up one certain to be made point. YES, Sumner Taxpayers Alliance does harshly and vocally critique elected and unelected government officials for going off the rails! We also personally thank the same officials when they do good. And as long as the good Lord gives us breath, we WILL continue to do both!

In a Constitutional Republic, constituents of elected representatives - We the People - send people into government roles to do our bidding. Of course, we’re going to be critical of unacceptable performance and behavior. It is a citizen’s job!

Do you take your car in for major repairs, pay a bunch of $$$ and then act all congenial to the mechanic when the wheels fall off? Of course not! Did Knute Rockne, Bear Bryant, or Nick Saban win all of those football games by being “nice” to their players? You know the answer, they were very tough on the players, assistants and everybody involved! So, to the critics, save your breath.

Finally, a few observations. The outcome was very interesting, in that incumbents won in some cases, but then some of the more "established" candidates lost. One race - County Commission District 2 - was decided by just 3 votes! That's what happens when there's low voter turnout.

And, that leads to the last point - which is actually a question for you. If you didn't vote or were reluctant to vote, we'd like to get your feedback on why. We have our own suspicions, but don't want to speak for you until we actually hear from you.

After we've had a chance to do some more analysis, we may have further thoughts. But, for now, we'll give you a break from the emails for a bit.

Until then, God bless you all, Kevin

Kevin Baigert
SUMNER TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE
Email: [email protected]
www.Facebook.com/SumnerTaxpayers

05/04/2026

Today's Email Newsletter: Sumner County Gazette – 5/4/2026 Edition – “Fill in the blank”

Greetings!

We promise, this will be the last time we bug you, at least between now and Election Day :o)
After having conversations with several of you over the last couple of days, we realized that we failed to make one HUGE connection. Please let us correct that inadvertent omission.

With that said, we didn’t know what to title this update. It could have been “Reading the tea leaves” or “Is past behavior an indication of future behavior?” or “How the game is played, part 1.” We decided to let you “fill in the blank.” We hope you enjoy this read!

Over these last few updates, pertaining to this ongoing election, we’ve made references to the people (also known as County Commissioners and School Board members) closely associated with driving the 2014 (24%) and 2019 (17%) property tax increases. You’ll also likely recall that we’ve also connected those people who raised your property taxes to the 2024 created Political Action Committee (PAC) named Sumner County Republican Freedom Caucus. Please hold that thought for just one moment.

Sumner County currently uses a 5-year property reappraisal cycle. That means that every 5 years, the Assessor of Property and his team look at ALL of the properties in Sumner County and give them new “values.” Then, the value of your property times the County Commission-set tax rate equals the amount that you pay as “property tax.” Here’s the rub.

By State Statute (the law), the County Commission MUST initially accept a property tax rate (calculated by the Assessor of Property and approved by the State and called the Revenue-Neutral Tax Rate) which yields the same net amount of property tax revenue to the County as in the previous year. So, individual property tax bills MIGHT go up or down some amount IF the individual values went up or down, but, in total, the amount of tax revenue to the County must be the same. THEN, in a separate vote, the County Commission can raise, lower, or keep the “revenue neutral” tax rate. This is the key point!

SO, IF you were a smooth-talking political, we’ll be polite, “cat,” who wants to assure your re-election chances, what would you do? You would finagle things so that you only have to vote to change (increase) the tax rate when there was a property reappraisal. In other words, in Sumner County’s case, every 5 years. This way you can “hide” behind the “Tax Assessor’s” reappraisal process!

Here’s what Nashville’s Freddie O’Connell DEMOCRAT Mayor has to say on the topic. “…the history of Metro is that we try to align property tax rate with the assessment process, and so the appraisal process and tax rate adjustment cycles usually are on track,” which you can see for yourself here https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nashville-mayor-will-not-propose-property-tax-rate-reduction-in-budget/ar-AA2281qY?ocid=BingNewsSerp Hmmmm, so, it’s just a coinkydink that Sumner County does the same thing?

Now back to the story.

What happened in 2014? There was a property reappraisal, and the County Commission voted to raise your property tax rate by 24%! What happened in 2019? There was a property reappraisal, and the County Commission voted to raise your property tax rate by 17%! What happened in 2024?

SCREEEEEEEECH! STOP THE PRESSES!

Yes, there WAS a property reappraisal. But, guess what?! The County Commission voted to NOT increase the tax rate. NOTE: You might have had your individual property tax bill go up, but this was due to your property value going up more than the average value across Sumner County. Like ours did.

The bottom line:
2014 reappraisal and a 24% property tax rate increase
2019 reappraisal and a 17% property tax rate increase
2024 reappraisal and a 0% property tax rate increase

We were going to insert a graph, but we think you get the picture! SO, what was the difference? What happened in 2024? We’re glad you asked!

Well, it started in 2022, when you all elected a majority of County Commissioners who were branded as the “Sumner County Constitutional Republicans.” In each of the years that these SCCR Commissioners were in office, they voted to keep the tax rate at OR below the REVENUE NEUTRAL tax rate! THE FACT IS, IN 2023 THEY ACTUALLY VOTED TO REDUCE THE TAX RATE. THAT’S SOMETHING FREDDIE SAYS NEVER HAPPENS.

For the record, 2026 is not in the books yet, but by all indications, this County Commission will not vote to raise the property tax rate. But IF they do, we’ll be here with the who’s who of tax and spend government!

Back to the current elections. The Sumner County Republican Freedom Caucus has raised somewhere in the vicinity of $300,000 dollars. (Details were covered in a previous newsletter.) And they are spending lavishly to elect or reelect certain candidates and incumbents. How many of you have received the multiple mailers or the text messages, or phone calls paid for by the SCRFC? In reporting available to date, they have given or spent $0.00 on any incumbents who had previously been endorsed by the now defunct Sumner County Constitutional Republicans. Hmmm? Also, as you may know, many of the Sumner County Constitutional Republican-endorsed incumbents in 2022 chose not to run again. Certainly, they had big ol' targets painted on their backs by the Sumner County REPUBLICAN Freedom Caucus.

So, it’s pretty clear, the Sumner County REPUBLICAN Freedom Caucus is the funding mechanism for reimplementing the tax and spend policies of the past. And, here are the candidates they have endorsed https://republicanfreedomcaucus.com/candidates

I have to wonder, though, if this is all a game to them.

A "game?" you ask. Well, if you haven’t been on social media, you may not have heard. But this might sum it up for you.

See image below

For details and the supporting evidence, you can find it here https://www.facebook.com/votetimjones/posts/pfbid035CkbbAp9mLniL1qXyDUTA2zZq2mBjcqNSEvzTUtEc1aVGyAGXWf7wQYcpAnZrk8kl?__cft__[0]=AZZX7AD4-33jQ66pko5ok7gUQhuKUhgyTQPy5lKJHdoexFF-Aug2VWegdkYD1WtoVmsbKy9SdSsBsFuiyKn14bG_6jkssfSeP7qilXrjFXBswpG9x3HfmEZmVb6Pzfgbl8ebT7QNakNdXE6l1cQFWZmuYIIQ7CdRtMoc7XUtyA2ilA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

We won’t get into the weeds now about the source of the “game” comment, except to say that he’s uncontested on the ballot, he’s endorsed by the Sumner County Republican Freedom Caucus, and he has, in turn, endorsed some of the SCRFC-endorsed candidates. We don’t know about you, but we don’t see ANY of this as a game AT ALL. And, we can’t imagine in our wildest dreams that all of you – the taxpayers footing the bill – see this as a game, either. In fact, we have a great disdain for being "played." It's bad enough feeling that ourselves, but it's so much worse thinking of all of you. You're who we've been fighting for all these years!

This will likely be brushed off as something that was intended as a private message, seen by the wrong eyes. But, it feels much larger than that.

And, we can't help but think of the words of Jesus: "For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known."

All we can do now is pray and vote. Tomorrow’s the day. Hope to see you out there! God bless! Kevin

Kevin Baigert
SUMNER TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE
Email: [email protected]
www.Facebook.com/SumnerTaxpayers

PS – Thank you to all of you have been involved in getting us information! Sumner Taxpayers are everywhere and are paying attention! A thank you to the reader who aptly pointed out that School Board candidate Robert “Rob” Wheeler is the City Attorney for the City of Millersville. You know, that epitome of transparent and impeccably run government, Millersville, TN.

05/03/2026

Today's Email Newsletter: Sumner County Gazette – 5/4/2026 Edition – “Iceberg! Dead ahead!” Part 1

Howdy Folks!

First and foremost, thank you to all of you who have read our rants and have replied to us. Your direct feedback indicates that y’all are engaged! Traction on Facebook also seems to be increasing. That’s great, and we have time to do more!

Now the reference to the Titanic in the title may sound a bit hyperbolic, but trust us when we tell you, “We’ve been here before!” The question is, do we use the helm and avoid the iceberg, or do we suffer the fate of the Titanic?

Tuesday, May 5th is “Election Day” for the 2026 Sumner County primaries. It is THE day that will define when and how much all of our property taxes will go up over the next couple of years!

Comparing apples to apples, the early voting results are in, and 2026 early voter turn-out compared to the similar 2022 election appears to be up about 10%. 2022 = 6438 vs 2026 = 7105 But that ain’t really saying much! When the dust settled in 2022, primary voting yielded a total voter turn-out of 14.07% of registered voters. Total 2022 Election Results -https://www.votesumnertn.org/uploads/files/Election-Summary-Report.pdf 2026 Early Voting Results https://www.votesumnertn.org/uploads/files/1655144601-pdf.pdf?v=1777728239

We’ve got one more chance, on May 5th, to elect representatives to the School Board AND County Commission who believe in holding the line on local government spending AND raising our taxes! We need each and every one of you to not only vote, but to also reach out to friends, family and neighbors and get them to vote.

That’s the good news. We still have a chance to sway who our Sumner County government listens to: Us, or the special interest groups. The bad news is that on Tuesday, Election Day, not many of the races are contested, in other words, there’s not a lot of real choices.

NOTE – we are only including in this discussion candidates who label themselves as Republicans. We will continue to exclude candidates who label themselves as Democrat, because for one, they can’t and won’t win the General Election in August, AND because until the Democrat Party backs away from their policies of open borders, giving out your tax dollars for free-stuff for illegal immigrants, murdering babies, mutilating children’s bodies, etc., we can’t even discuss the individuals running! Also, we clearly know and understand that many “Republicans,” including many in Sumner County positions today, operate in a manner that is a far cry from the true fiscal and social conservatism that is historical Sumner County, Tennessee! What’s in a name? That answer will be left for a future discussion which we will have, sooner than later!

SO, to keep this update short, we’ll only touch on the contested races in the Republican primary!

School Board District 1 – Jill Rathert is our pick. She is a mom whose children all attended Sumner County schools. She has volunteered in various Sumner County classrooms for years. She leads a group of conservative Sumner County women. She will advocate for the children AND the teachers. https://voterathert.com/ We personally know Jill.

Jill’s opponent, former Hendersonville Fire Chief Scotty Bush, is going to be viewed favorably for his 10 years on the HFD, as most emergency responders do. But, in 2018, there was pretty clear evidence that he was involved with or, at the very least, did nothing to correct a situation where his firemen were working on behalf of at least one candidate’s political campaign. That is, at a MINIMUM a violation of city policy.

A lawsuit was filed, which you can read here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i9RvDOc7bX6Vlk7anQ6Eg7uzRD4XqIQMIeRYvvI99ps/edit?tab=t.0

In addition to the illegal campaigning, Chief Bush also declared that he would violate the public records act by not providing documents to the plaintiff who filed the case. Does that remind you of a certain public records case also in Sumner County – with the schools where hundreds of thousands of $$$ (we’ve never been able to get the exact amount) was spent to keep someone from getting the actual school policy on public records?! Unfortunately, too, he is tied directly to the people who gave us the 2014 and 2019 property tax increases. IF you think that every Sumner County child deserves a fair and equal chance to a solid education, vote for Jill Rathert. IF you want your property taxes to go up to pay for more exponential growth in school-system administrative costs, palatial facilities, and non-educational programs (think of the coming soon health clinic in Portland), vote for Sumner County Republican Freedom Caucus endorsed and funded, Scotty Bush.

School Board District 5 – Incumbent School Board member Steven King is our pick. Steven King is a Dad with kids in Sumner County Schools, musician and professional educator with over ten years’ experience in the classroom both in elementary K-4 and currently at the university level. He earned a Master of Education degree in 2017 from Tennessee State University. https://www.facebook.com/stevenkingforschools/about_details Perhaps more importantly, we know and respect Steven, because he’s an articulate and passionate advocate for traditional educational goals and objectives! He has been fighting for the children and the teachers - including pay raises - and against more exponential growth in school-system administrative costs, palatial facilities, and non-educational programs, for the past four years! He was a champion in advocating for getting the space needed in the new stadium for Beech Cheer and addressing Merroll Hyde Magnet School’s HVAC issues, to name a few. He has been exceedingly vocal in publicly calling out the School Director, who previously led the County Commission in giving you the 2014 and 2019 property tax increases, while also salting away tens of millions of your tax dollars into the school system “reserve” bank account. Money that’s NOT used to educate our kids, or pay our teachers, but to fund “special” pet programs and projects.

Steven’s opponent is Robert “Rob” Wheeler, an attorney who represents School Boards across Tennessee and is the “voice” of Beech High School baseball and basketball. https://electrobwheeler.com/ We don’t know Rob, and he may be a very nice man, however just like Scotty Bush, he is tied directly to the people who gave us the 2014 and 2019 property tax increases.

School Board District 7 – Challenger Mike Ray is our pick. We have witnessed firsthand Mike standing up for traditional conservative values when he speaks at County Commission meetings. He failed in his attempt to be appointed on the Sumner County Library Board, due to his strong Christian-based stance on keeping inappropriate materials (po*******hy) away from children. We’ve spoken to Mike and his family on several occasions, but can’t say that we know him well. However, we have close friends who are Mike’s neighbors, and they speak very highly of Mike and his family. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578647331529

Mike’s opponent is incumbent School Board member and Chairman, Andy Daniels. We’ve spent countless hours watching how Mr. Daniels runs the School Board and how he votes. Suffice it to say, that in our opinion, it’s pathetic! He is nothing but a shill for the Director of Schools.

Instead of the Director working for and reporting to the School Board, in reality, with Mr. Daniels as Chairman, it operates completely in reverse! In a sense, your elected representatives aren’t representing you at all. Unless you wanted Del Phillips to get paid his full salary of $210,000 for being available to consult from Mississippi and don’t want to be able to speak your mind at School Board meetings. And again, just like in the two cases above, Mr. Daniels is tied directly to the people who gave us the 2014 and 2019 property tax increases. Are you seeing a trend yet?

School Board District 9 – Christopher Guiette is our pick. Now we will admit up front that we don’t know Chris or much about him. Rumor has it that he is from Texas. Pressed blue jeans or not, it don’t matter, he married a girl from Sumner County, so now he’s one of us. Down the road we’ll see if he’s a Texian or a Texan. One thing is certain, currently, he’s not one of the hand-picked “yes” votes for the Director of Schools.

Chris’s opponent is incumbent School Board member Kathy Stuart. From our observations, Kathy is a nice enough person. But she’s also pretty much a guaranteed vote for whatever the Director of Schools wants to do. Hmmm? Sound familiar? And YES, she’s directly and unequivocally aligned with the people who ran up the “credit cards” that gave us the 2014 and 2019 property tax increases!

School Board District 11 – Last but certainly not least, our pick for our very own School Board representative is incumbent Andy Lacy. We know and love Andy, for his straightforward, “down home,” common-sense approach to everything in life. Andy is the kind of guy you want next to you in the foxhole when the “p**p hits the fan.” He has been tirelessly advocating for the children and teachers of District 11 for four years – most especially on the issue of safety and special education.

Meanwhile, 4 years ago, Andy’s current opponent was the incumbent Dave Wilkerson. It was the first year of partisan School Board elections. Mr. Wilkerson pulled his papers to run as a Democrat, three weeks later, changed it to Independent and is now running as a “conservative Republican.” Plus, he voted for that $210,000 "bonus" for Del Phillips, voted for spending BIG $$$ for restoration of the dilapidated Comer Barn and voted against you speaking at School Board meetings.

And, to wrap this up, for the five County Commission seats being contested in the Republican primary, here are our picks:

District 1 – Jody Garrison
District 2 – Chris Shoemaker
District 9 – Paul Graden
District 12 – Matt Campbell
District 14 – no recommendation

Our final thought: If you don't like the candidate for a seat - any seat - don't feel you have to cast a vote for them. It's your vote and you can do with it what you like. You can leave it blank - as a kind of protest - or write in someone, anyone you think would be a good person for the job. It's just one more way to make our voices heard!

To all of you and the candidates who have put their names out there to serve "we the people," and suffered abuse and lies because of it, God bless you and thank you for all you do to stay engaged and positively impact our beloved Sumner County! Kevin

Kevin Baigert
SUMNER TAXPAYERS ALLIANCE
Email: [email protected]
www.Facebook.com/SumnerTaxpayers

I believe in Jesus,Truth,Morals,Common Sense,The Constitution and that children should be protected at all costs.