Fentress Budget Includes Three Percent Salary Increase

Fentress County has approved its operating budget for the coming fiscal year.

Part of this year’s budget process included partaking in a salary study. Finance Director Tyler Arms said the county has struggled with attracting and retaining employees, and that this will hopefully boost those rates.

“Some of our employees who have received larger raises in the past, they were making above the salary study so if they were already making above that they didn’t lose any money, they received there percent on what they were making,” Arms said. “And then if you making under the salary study, you received your salary study plus the three percent. So basically once the salary study goes into place, nobody lost any money and we implemented a three percent raise across the board to everybody.”

The county’s expenditures are estimated at some $42 million with an estimated $39.8 million in revenues.

Arms said that implementing the salary study has the county operating some $340,000 in the red, but that is not a concern. He said over the past two years, they’ve added some $2 million to their general fund balances.

“And I can’t take credit for that, I mean these commissioners do a good job and as you can hear they sort through every decision a lot,” Arms said. “And your department heads have done a really good job of being diligent with their funds and diligent with their budgets.”

The county’s tax levy was set at $1.91, the same as its been since the 2018-2019 fiscal year.