News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County Budget passed Monday night receiving little opposition from commissioners.
Commissioner Ben Rodgers outlined each fund before voting. The spending plan maintains the current tax rate and includes over 10 new positions. A $5,000 raise for emergency workers and $3,000 for the others also moves forward.
After commissioners voted for each individual budget, Commissioner Theresa Tayes expressed her thoughts as a county employee.
“Please stop separation of county employees with certain types of pay raises,” Tayes said. “This is not good for any of those who give all that they have to this county to operate. We operate with more than a few departments, and all of those departments are important.”
Tayes said she wants the commission to be fair across the board for all departments. Tayes said every employee contributes to the day to day operations of the county.
Overall, the county will spend about $1.4 million dollars of its own money to cover expenditures without a tax increase. Rodgers who also served as the budget committee chair gave his thanks for the months of work on the budget.
“Appreciate Randy (Porter) and his office and Chelsea (Qualls) did a great job,” Rodgers said. “Everybody’s office does a great job on budget prep. Department heads and officials. Thank you so much for your time and getting this in and budget committee and commission thank you for your hard work.”
Commission Chair Mike Atwood said he is proud that the county passed the budget without a tax increase.
In other business, the commission started the process to replace two positions in the November election. Commissioners acknowledged the resignation of Commissioner Jimmy Neal and the passing of Register of Deeds Harold Burris.
The chief deputy of the Register of Deeds Department will fill the position until the election. Neal will still be on the August ballot, but he has already stated he would decline the position if elected. He faces child pornography charges.
