Hogan wants Murray to be a place to return to

Greg Hogan has been Murray County sole commissioner for almost a year now, and says his focus remains the same as he seeks re-election.

“The only reason that I ran the first time is because I care what happens to the county and I don’t want my grandkids having to move off and not come back,” he said. “I want them to be here. I want it to be a place where we can make that happen. If you want to go to college and come back you can get a job here and work here, that’s one of my major concerns.”

Hogan faces Brittany Pittman in the Republican primary on July 31. No Democrat qualified, so the winner of the primary is essentially elected. Hogan won a special election July 19 of last year to replace former sole commissioner David Ridley, who resigned. Hogan was sworn in on July 29.

“I have accomplished quite a bit since I’ve been in there such a short time,” Hogan said. “We have cut the budget $65,000, we’ve got a new collection site that goes toward recycling, is the only one of its kind that’s set up ... We’re working real aggressive in trying to get retail and businesses in here to put our people back to work, and if they want to shop here maybe we can get something where they can shop.”

But, he adds, “It wasn’t tore up overnight and I can’t fix it overnight.”

Hogan said there is a “big box” company that is looking at Murray County for a location.

“I can’t say a name, because a lot of times what we found out is that too much talk will drive these big box stores away, they don’t want to have any pressure about where to locate,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of these businesses. It’s not in the textile industry that’s asking questions of our economic development office about what we’ve got to offer and wanting to look at buildings and wanting to look at property and things that we have.

“It’s looking promising.”

Hogan also noted that since the first of the year sales tax revenue has increased on average 15 percent each month compared to the same month last year.

Priorities

Asked his top priorities for another term, Hogan mentioned the “vision plan” for the county developed by Market Street Strategies that was unveiled in 2010, but noted the county’s finances are a problem.

“We’re trying to follow that plan,” he said.

Hogan did hire an economic development specialist on a contract basis for $12,000 a year with no benefits, paid for with funds from the hotel-motel tax. He said an economic development director full time would cost $75,000 to $85,000 a year, plus benefits.

“Right now we don’t have the money to do that,” he said. “The economy won’t allow it.”

Hogan said he would like to see Highway 411 “paved to the four lane from the interstate to the Tennessee line. And we’re working ... trying to get at least an exit sign on I-75 at Cartersville showing that you can go to the Smoky Mountains up 411 and try to draw tourism. We’re promoting tourism, but I don’t think we’re promoting it to our full extent, but we’re doing all we can with the money we’ve got.”

To that end, Hogan took a 10 percent pay cut of the commissioner’s salary at the start of this year when the budget was adopted.

“The county’s under financial stress,” he said. “I was just trying to help. I wanted to lead by example, start at the top and come down.”

TSPLOST

Hogan said the regional transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) referendum on the ballot would be good for Murray County because the county would receive more money than would be collected from it.

“The only thing that worries me is you’ve got projects, if you do one seven years down the road, that cost may go up, and I’m worried about if it goes up and you have a shortfall, what are you going to do?” he said. “But as far as discretionary funding, we’ll gain big time on that. We usually get about $350,000 to $375,000 a year from our program through the state to help us with our paving but if this passes we’ll get about $1.2 million, and the cities will get a portion ... to do infrastructure, roads and whatever we need to do. But it’s got to be used on bridges and roads and things like that.”

Back to a board of commissioners?

A non-binding question placed on the ballot by both major political parties asks if Murray County should return to a board of commissioners instead of keeping the sole commissioner form of government. Hogan was asked his view on the subject.

“They’ve tried boards here, it doesn’t work in this county, I don’t know why,” he said. “It just doesn’t, and even members of the board will tell you it just didn’t work.”

He added, “Sure, I have a final say on things, but I take my time and I’ll give you an unbiased decision, whether you like the outcome of it or not, I’ll tell you why or why not, and then I’ll explain why I came to the decision I came to.

“But everybody thinks that this job is just to sit in that office and never see the light of day. But we’ve got a financial manager and he is on top of his game, and that’s Tommy Parker. There’s people that’s been there (with the county) 30 years and know what’s going on, know what they’re doing.”

He said, “I think I’ve done pretty good with what I’ve had to do with when I came into this office but I don’t support a board of commissioners because I don’t think it works. There’s certain situations that you get into, somebody’s got to have an answer within two or three days and if you have a board you’re going to have to wait on those board members to meet.”

Hogan is a Murray County native who says he has never lived anywhere else. He was mayor of Eton from 2004-2008. He is married to Donna and has a daughter named Sarah, a son-in-law and three grandchildren. He is a member of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Ramhurst.

“I think my qualifications should speak for themselves,” Hogan said. “I’m running on a platform, I don’t dirty campaign, never have and I won’t start it now.”

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