News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Fentress County budget is on its way to the state after the county passed its 2020-21 version including a pay increase for county employees Monday night.
County Executive Jimmy Johnson said the commission was able to pass the new budget with no tax increase.
“It was a good night,” Johnson said. “It was a good night for the taxpayers. There was no tax increase. We actually were able to give all of our emergency personnel a 6-percent raise and everyone else got a 4-percent raise. So we ended up in the black for the year.”
By getting a jump start on the budget process, Johnson said the county was able to get the budget completed on time for the first time in his memory.
“We got an early start and all the elected official were very cooperative in the whole process,” Johnson said. “They did an excellent job again this year of staying within their budget. So, we’ve really had a good year. We did a lot of work here in the courthouse. We’ve several different things and were going to be doing some more here in the next few months. It’s been a good year, but it’s been a really hard year.”
One lingering issue between Fentress County and the City of Jamestown remains the Fentress E-911 budget. Johnson said the county approved the original budget that was submitted to the county. He said a scheduled meeting between the city and county will still take place Thursday.
“We’ve had some questions about the budget,” Johnson said. “We passed one budget and then another one got turned in, so it’s just working out some things. The commission did pass the original budget that they turned in in February.”
Johnson said that although he does not know exactly what will be discussed at the joint meeting, if more funding needs to go to the E-911 budget, the county can pass budget amendments to cover the costs.
