About those bonds...

Tunica County's bond rating has been reduced.  I'm not surprised. Are you?

And it is our own fault.  Time and time again we have elected and hired people because they are our friends or family or because they are from Tunica and look where it has gotten us.

What the reduction in our bond rating says is that for way, way too long we have been living above our means.

Let's take a look at our history:

1.  During the early part of this century our elected officials put in place a County Administrator who helped them build all of these building without any feasibility studies.  Not only that, they didn't even wait to see if the first project could sustain itself before they were on to the next.

In 2001, bonds were issued for the arena and the museum. The arena was for $30M and the museum for $3M.

In 2003, a $15M bond was issued for an airport expansion.

In 2004, bonds were issued for the RiverPark and Museum and the golf course and tennis complex.

None of these ventures has ever made money. And yet James Dunn, Cedric Burnett, Paul Battle, III, and Billy Pegram continued to be re-elected.

2. Starting in 2007, we started to see a reduction in our gaming revenue. Our income from this source went from 46.1M in 2007 to 25.9M in 2014.

From 2007 until 2011, Supervisors James Dunn, Cedric Burnett, Paul Battle, III, Bobby Williams and Billy Pegram watched as our income went south.  There was another County Administrator advising the Supervisors but it was not until the election of Phillis Williams, Sonny Nickson and McKinley Daley that this CA advised the BOS that there needed to be millage added to support our debt service.  This 15.77 millage was passed in Sep 2013.

3. In Dec 2013, these three new Supervisors voted to replace the second County Administrator with a highly qualified individual who wasn't born and raised in Tunica County.

Our government became more transparent under the new CA. Progress was being made. In the middle of all of this, a cry continued to be heard. "He doesn't live here". Did you ever stop to think that maybe be need expertise that doesn't exist in Tunica County?

Look at our history.  What made us think that the individuals we elected, continue to elect and hire, had or have the knowledge to run Tunica County?

Our bond rating proves we are our own worst enemy.