County Mayor Jim Coppinger said Tuesday the effects of the coronavirus will result in a lean county budget with no pay increase for employees. There will be no tax increase.
He said the upcoming budget "was revised after the virus broke out and revised again after the tornadoes."
It will be the first budget since 2014 when county employees did not get a raise.
Requests for county general government add up to $299,369,000 - up from the current $261 million. The county mayor said much of those requests will not be able to be filled.
County Mayor Coppinger said the county has "maintenance of effort" responsibilities for the Department of Education as well as the Highway Department and the Election Commission. That involves providing at least as much funding as the previous year.
He said the county budget will meet that requirement without a need to raise taxes.
The Election Office request is up $614,000 since the fiscal year will include the presidential election, some local elections, and a major city of Chattanooga election.
Debt service is down $1.9 million, he said.
County Mayor Coppinger said though employees will not get a raise, there will be no increase in their health insurance costs. The county insurance is self-funded and has built up a reserve of some $25 million.
The overall county fund balance is at $111 million.
The only upward pay adjustments are for emergency personnel and EMTs as part of an ongoing program to make those posts more attractive so workers can be retained.
The county mayor said costs to operate the jail and Silverdale have reached $110,000 a pay. He said the FUSE program which seeks to remove those with mental issues from the jail has not yet brought any savings, but it should in the future.
County Mayor Coppinger said the county is not being hurt so badly by the coronavirus because it has a small reliance on sales tax - $4.8 million last year from sales in the unincorporated areas. He said the county is getting a larger amount in Internet taxes.
He noted that the hotel/motel tax is way down, but the county does not rely on that - the Visitors Bureau does.
The Sheriff's budget request includes an increase of $1,461,000.
There are 1,853 county employees. Requests would raise that to 1,872. But he said many requests will have to be deleted.
County Mayor Coppinger said the county expects to get about $3.3 million from the state to help cover coronavirus expenses as well as reimbursements from FEMA for much of the tornado cleanup.
He said the county was sitting pretty budget-wise on March 1 with the economy at full throttle. Then the virus put a damper on the whole fiscal picture.
The county mayor said this will be the last year of income from the Hall Tax that is being phased out over five years. Some $300,000 is expected - down by about $500,000 from the current fiscal year.
Albert Kiser, finance director, said sales tax coming to the county was going well early this year and might have come in as high as $6.5 million to $7 million if the virus had not occurred.