In a special called meeting of the Rhea County Commission Friday night, a $21.6 million county general budget along with a $43.3 million school budget was approved on first reading.
Budget Chairman Billy Thedford made the motion to approve the budget as presented by the budget committee with a second by Commissioner Nick Welch after a long pause with no other commissioners speaking. With Commissioners Tommy Ballard and Emily Fisher both unable to attend the meeting, the measure still passed by seven votes.
Commissioners also set the tax rate for Rhea County at $1.3486 per $100 of assessed property.
A special called meeting will be held on Aug.
25 starting at 6 p.m. in the Courthouse Annex second floor for the final approval of the budget. Counties and cities are required to have a final budget in to the Comptroller’s Office by Aug. 31st. If a budget is not submitted to the division of Local Government Finance of the Comptroller’s Office within two months of the beginning of the July 1st fiscal year, the local government may not issue debt or financing obligations until the Division of Local Government Finance has approved the budget.
Not getting the budget in on time also has implications for school system budgets as well. The State BEP provisions are set at the bare minimum to operate the schools.
Commissioner Mark Cashman made the motion after the vote on the budget to send a message to everyone that they must meet the scheduled times for having their budget in to the commission. The commission will automatically revert their budget back to the previous year's amounts. The motion passed unanimously.
The County Commission will hold their regularly scheduled workshop next Tuesday starting at 6 p.m.