Hatcher and Howard spar over school funding, sanitation and rural health at Polk County forum

Robbie Hatcher, Polk County executive, and Stan Howard, a former Polk County school-board member, faced off at a Republican candidate forum where the two focused much of their exchange on school construction, county services and rural health care.

Hatcher, who has served as county executive since 2018, said the county lacks the resources to build new schools on its own and urged seeking state capital funding. “We will not be able to do this on county funds. We will have to lobby Nashville to hopefully get capital building expenses put into the state funding system,” Hatcher said. He reviewed earlier planning: a 2018 half-cent sales-tax referendum that produced roughly $2 million and earlier construction estimates that have climbed from about $250 per square foot to near $450 per square foot, driving a three-school project toward a roughly $90 million price tag.

Howard, who emphasized his private-sector experience and previous service on the school board, said new revenue will be necessary and said the county must weigh options such as a sales tax or other local revenue. He also noted the county’s limited control over school spending: “Whenever the money goes to the school system from the county side, we have no authority and we have no control over that,” Howard said, citing a roughly $3.3 million county maintenance-of-effort contribution to the schools.

On sanitation and county operations, Hatcher described a decision earlier in his tenure to bring sanitation back under county management after an RFP returned bids as high as $877,000; he said local control reduced costs, created jobs and allowed the county to hire maintenance staff and contract employees. “Yes, we had to purchase our equipment. Yes, we brought the employees in. We hired two full-time employees, eight part-time employees,” Hatcher said, adding that hauling remains a challenge.

Howard credited county efforts to stabilize services but stressed that the executive must work closely with the county commission, which controls funding. “The county executive should be the CEO of the county,” Howard said, “but it does take a good cooperation between the county executive and the county commission.”

Healthcare and emergency services also featured in the debate. Hatcher urged pursuing federal rural medicine funding and attracting partners to reopen or repurpose the vacant local hospital as a 24-hour emergency center. “We’ve got a facility sitting there with a helipad. We’ve got to be attractive to some organization to come help us,” he said.

Both candidates backed public audits of county spending. Hatcher noted frequent state audits of county accounts and said he would support transparency if savings were found; Howard favored an independent audit if it proved cost-effective.

The candidates differed in emphasis but both committed to party unity when asked to pledge support for Republican nominees in the primary and general elections.

The forum was one part of a broader evening of candidate introductions in Polk County, where other local officeholders and challengers also spoke.

What happens next: The forum ended with short closing statements and an opportunity for one-on-one discussion; no formal endorsements or policy votes took place at the event.