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by Pete Edwards

The City of Cleveland was ranked 19 out of the 50 largest Tennessee cities for the

most business friendly in the state.

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) annual business climate report scores each city in four categories considered vital to encouraging business success and fostering the entrepreneurial spirit: Business Tax Burden, Economic Vitality, Community Allure and Strategic Location.

Spring Hill ranked first or second overall in three of the report's four categories. In total, Spring Hill scored 93.98 out of a possible 100 percent on all counts of business friendliness. Cleveland came 19 with 52.12 out of a possible 100. Mt. Juliet earned the second highest score at 80.5 percent. Franklin, La Vergne and

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Brentwood rounded out the top five.

"Centrally located with a low cost of living, small town charm and the lowest business tax burden in the state, Spring Hill's success story is no accident," said Drew Johnson of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. "Years of responsible, business-friendly public policy decisions have made Spring Hill the destination of choice for business owners in the Volunteer State."

The title of Tennessee's "Least Business-Friendly City" belongs to Lawrenceburg.

The city's remote location, comparatively high tax burden and unpromising growth trends led to scores in the bottom third in every category.

Nashville scored highest among Tennessee's four major cities with a 28th place ranking. Knoxville scored 35th, while Memphis and Chattanooga finished near the

bottom at 47th and 48th out of the 50 cities in the report.

In 2005 Spring Hill was in the news for being the first city in Tennessee to boast a zero percent property tax rate making it one of the most taxpayer friendly places to live.  In July 2005, Mayor Danny Leverette, stunned the audience attending the Board and Alderman meeting by proposing a zero property tax rate for the city located forty miles south of Nashville. The announcement was the culmination of a five year quest to reduce taxes. Today, the property tax rate is still zero percent.

Leverette was continuing a trend begun by the late Mayor Ray Williams in 2000 when he vowed to eliminate the city's property taxes. At that time, the rate was 41 cents per $100 assessed value on the city's Williamson County side and 38 cents per $100 assessed value on the Maury County side. As reported in the Tennessean, over the next four years, Williams took the rate down to a rate of 19 cents on both sides of the city. But Williams died of a sudden heart attack in January 2000, before he could accomplish his goal.

"I can happily say, we have enough money (in our budget) to go from our 19-cent rate to zero cents here in the city of Spring Hill,'' Leverette said at the time. "To be able to do this in one fell swoop is quite astonishing.''

Mayor Williams effort to ease the property tax burden on the citizens of Spring Hill began with the passage of  a resolution called the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights. The Columbia Daily Herald reported that the resolution, which was passed by the mayor and board of aldermen, states that the board may not increase property taxes in the city without approval through a public referendum.  Objecting to the passage of the resolution was Ross Loder, deputy director of the Tennessee Municipal League, an association representing municipal public employees organizations.

Spring Hill's conservative approach to controlling the tax burden of its citizens has transferred to the business sector that were required to supplement for the lack of a property tax. The TCPR report shows that removing the property tax for residents has not deterred a healthy business environment, business seems to flourish when government practices responsible money management.

"We've run this city as a business," Williams said. "Our board is very conscientious; we realize this is the people's money."

Williams noted that Spring Hill has been able to provide increased services such as the building of a new water treatment plant and expansion of the city's sewer treatment facility, all completed while the tax rate was lowered.

"We've also built a million dollar fire hall, paved the streets, gotten a new library, put in streetlights, all the while lowering the taxes," Williams said.

The 2007 TCPR report is a tribute to the foresight of Williams, 7 years after his death.
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