News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County Commissioners voted to pass its budget Monday night, trying to balance the needs of county employees with those of the other 27,000 residents.
County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said with material prices and inflation, the county faced more budgetary challenges this year. He said employees will get three percent raises across the board, which is considerably less than he would have liked. He said in order to keep property tax at $2.05, he and commissioners had to give some “tough no’s.”
“You had a bunch of people wanting raises and a bunch of people needing just equipment and stuff,” Robinson said. “So it was a tough budget year for the Budget Committee and the Commission. They had to make some hard decisions. Some of them are not popular, but they had to be made.”
Robinson said that three percent raise would leave county employees with less spending money than last year as it is not enough to account for inflation.
He said finding a way to keep property tax the same heading into the reappraisal year was vital.
“When that comes in, that always throws a wrench into the budgeting process,” Robinson said. “And so, we didn’t want to have to do any kind of tax raise this year and then there come around and be one next year. If we’re going to do something, we wanted it to be during that appraisal year when it’s all going to be mixed up anyway and we don’t know how it’s going to land.”
He said the total budget, including the Highway Department and White County School system is some $55 million. He said the budget will fund that with a deficit of some $200,000-$300,000.
“We didn’t cut anybody from what they had last year, but we didn’t get to give the raises that we wanted to give,” Robinson said.
