UCHRA Board Approves $17 Million Budget Plan

The Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency’s Board of Directors passed its $17 million budget plan Wednesday.

Executive Director Mark Farley said the primary goal in the new budget was to provide clarity in the report.

“The thing I’ve heard time and time again from the board members is they’ve never been able to see a comprehensive look at what the budget looks like,” Farley said. “That’s one of the things I’m very proud of. I don’t take any credit for it. Ginger Stout, our finance director, has done a wonderful job putting together not only the department budgets but also a consolidated budget for the agency.”

Farley said the $17 million spending plan is down significantly from where the agency was nearly a decade ago.

“I was telling the board earlier, ten years ago, we were a roughly $30 million organization and now we’re down to $17 [million],” Farley said. “A lot of that’s because of the change in services we’re administering. Obviously the state and federal governments are looking to tighten their budgets, and sometimes that means cuts for our agency.”

The UCHRA’s nutrition program will likely see the largest cuts during the next fiscal year. Financial woes caused the agency to scale the program back to weekly frozen meal delivery rather than daily hot meals to clients.

Despite the cuts, Farley has confidence in the agency’s future with the new budget.

“We’re very excited we’re able to look at our financial report from a comprehensive standpoint and be able to gauge our successes and our failures,” Farley said.

The agency’s 2019-2020 budget plan is the first under its shared-management agreement with the Upper Cumberland Development District (UCDD).