On Monday, members of the Carter County Commission will debate and vote on the proposed budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
The Carter County Commission will meet in regular session on Monday, July 18, at 6 p.m. at the Carter County Health Department’s Truman Clark Annex, located at 403 E. G St. The location of the meeting was changed last week after an air conditioning unit at the Carter County Courthouse malfunctioned.
Prior to the Commission meeting, the Budget Committee will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. on the Certified Tax Rate and the county’s intention to set the 2016-17 property tax rate at an amount higher than the certified tax rate. The public hearing will also be held at the Truman Clark Annex.
Because this year was a reappraisal year, property values across the county were re-assessed. Once the reappraisals are completed, the state issues a “Certified Tax Rate” which determines what the tax rate would have to be in order to bring in the same amount of revenue as the during the previous year.
The certified tax rate came back from the state set at $2.44 per $100 of assessed value. The budget proposed by the county sets the tax rate for 2016-17 at $2.45 per $100 of assessed value, which is the same tax rate as last year. The increased revenue will be used to offset increased expenses for the county, including a 13 percent increase to the cost of employee health insurance.
The proposed budget for 2016-17 also includes a 3 percent raise for county employees and school system para-professionals, which includes positions such as bus drivers, cafeteria staff, and school book keepers. Raises for teachers were previously set by the state.
Members of the budget committee approved funding the 3 percent raise in a vote of 5-2. The motion to approve the raise was made by committee member Buford Peters and was seconded by committee member Nancy Brown. Peters and Brown were joined in voting in favor of the motion by committee members Ronnie Trivett and Ross Garland as well as Budget Committee Chairwoman Sonja Culler. Committee members John Lewis and Robert Carroll voted against the raise. Committee member L. C. Tester was absent during that portion of the meeting.
Much of the county’s annual budget remains unchanged from the previous year.
The budget committee voted to increase funding for the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library. In 2015 the library received $31,587.50 from the county. This year, Library Director Renita Barksdale requested an additional $50,000 in funding, which would have brought the county’s contribution to $81,587.50.
While Barksdale’s request did not get enough votes to pass the committee, members of the committee did reach a compromise on increased funding. The Committee voted 6-2 to set the library’s funding at $60,000, which is an increase of $28,412.50.
Volunteer Fire Departments across the county were also approved for an increase in funds this year.
For the county’s seven volunteer fire departments the committee approved a $5,000 increase in the overall funds. This brings the county funding of the volunteer fire departments to a total of $35,000 which is shared by the seven agencies, equaling out to $5,000 per department.
In a split decision, the Budget Committee voted to include a raise of $8,788 for Susan Robinson, the Administrative Assistant to Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey. As part of his budget request, Humphrey initially asked the committee to increase Robinson’s pay by $18,000 which would have set her annual salary at $50,000. Her current salary is just over $31,000. Humphrey told the committee he was reclassifying her position from “administrative assistant” to “Economic Development Director.”
Humphrey’s initial request was denied but he represented his budget with the lower request and it was approved on a vote of 5-3. Committee members Lewis, Trivett, Brown, Carroll and Garland voted in favor of funding the raise while Culler, Peters and Tester opposed the funding.
The budget proposed by the committee also includes funding for salary increases for five county employees who will be affected by a U.S. Department of Labor rule regarding overtime and exempt employees.
A new federal mandate under the Fair Labor Standards Act, will increase the minimum salary for any overtime exempt employee to $47,476.
Currently, according to Carter County Finance Director Christa Byrd, five county positions would be affected by the new rule: Planning Director Chris Schuettler, Landfill Director Benny Lyons, Deputy Finance Director Michael Kennedy, Animal Shelter Director Stacy Heiden, and Assistant Road Superintendent Shannon Burchett.
If the salaries for those positions are not increased, Byrd said the county would have to begin paying overtime for those employees, many of whom work significantly more than the typical 40 hours per work week. While approving the actual raises for those positions would be up to the individual committees that oversee them, the Budget Committee voted to go ahead and put funding in place for the raises so the budget would not have to be amended later when the rule takes effect.