The County Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a lean, no-tax-increase budget after a move failed by Commissioner Tim Boyd to pull $810,000 from supported agencies and re-instate discretionary funds.
Commissioner Boyd, at the start of the budget discussion, said he detected "mission drift" in some supported agencies. Asked for an example, he said the Chamber of Commerce had long been funded by the county to produce new jobs.
He said the Chamber recently was the primary sponsor for a Gay Rights parade that was "outside their mission." He said, "What's that got to do with recruiting jobs to Hamilton County?"
Commissioner Boyd said of the Chamber, "There doesn't seem to be the same focus on producing jobs, but on equity and diversity. Other groups can focus on that."
He proposed pulling a total of $810,000 from several agencies and allowing the commissioners to divvy up that amount for support of non-profit groups.
Commissioner Boyd said $40,000 could come from the Agriculture allotment, $12,500 each from the Southeast Tennessee Development District and the Air Pollution Control Bureau, $50,000 from the Enterprise Center, $300,000 from the Humane Educational Society and $395,000 from the Chamber.
That would leave Agriculture with $228,717, SETDD with $80,686, Air Pollution with $176,048, HES with $320,970, the Enterprise Center with $50,000 and the Chamber with $205,000.
He said the county mayor and his staff could decide for themselves which agencies to cut to reach the $810,000 total.
Commissioner Warren Mackey, who has long advocated for the return of discretionary funds, seconded the motion. Of cutting HES, he said, "I'm going to put human needs over animal needs every day. To give consideration to four-legged animals over a human being, it seems like our priorities are messed up."
County Mayor Jim Coppinger said the proposal "came totally out of the blue." He said if there was support to pass the motion, then the commissioners would need to outline what they wanted pulled from the agencies.
He said if the commissioners want discretionary funds they could "pull it straight out of the fund balance (savings)."
Commissioner David Sharpe said the last-minute move "would be pulling the rug out from under the affected agencies at a moment's notice."
Only Chester Bankston joined Commissioners Boyd and Mackey is supporting the idea, so if failed.
The budget total is $796.6 million.
County Mayor Coppinger expressed his appreciation to the county’s financial team, headed by Al Kiser, Lee Brouner and Vonda Patrick "for their long hours and hard work on one of the most difficult budgets in recent years. This has been a difficult financial year, due to the challenges we have faced. My goal this year is to maintain service with our current fiscal constraints while meeting all maintenance of effort requirements and not raise property taxes. No one anticipated the tornadoes that ravaged part of neither our community nor the economic impact Covid 19 would have upon Hamilton County and its residents and businesses. Many requests for additional funding were denied this year, a total of $29.5 million dollars in requested funds were cut.”
“Despite this financial challenge, we have again presented a balanced budget to taxpayers which meets our governmental, education and public safety needs while maintaining our valued AAA bond rating from the three major rating agencies.” The mayor continued his comments saying, “Our longstanding commitment to running government in a fiscally conservative manner has enabled us to weather the events of the first half of 2020 with some prudent budget tightening.”
County Mayor Coppinger also thanked the county commissioners "who have worked with me on not only the budget, but throughout the year to provide the services taxpayers expect during this challenging year."
Sixty-four percent of Hamilton County’s budget will go to fund the education system. The school system’s budget is now $473 million.
County Mayor Coppinger reiterated his support for education stating, “Despite the need to have a flat budget this year, education remains one of my foremost priorities.”
He said, "Public safety remains a key element of the service Hamilton County provides to its citizens and the value of Hamilton County’s Health Department and Emergency Management Agency has been on full display in recent months as we continue to battle Covid 19 and recover from the Easter tornadoes."
County Mayor Coppinger added due to the current economic climate employees will not receive raises this year. However the county was able to hold the line on employee’s health insurance costs with no increase.