Despite repeated cuts to the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the county is still looking at the possibility of a significant tax increase this year according to members of the Budget Committee and the county’s Finance Director.

On Monday evening, Budget Committee Chairwoman Sonja Culler provided members of the Carter County Commission with an update on the budget talks for this year.

Estimated revenue for the 2018-19 fiscal year is $15,375,201.59, Culler said, while expenditures are coming in at $16,172,282.41, leaving a shortfall of $751,257.39.

Each penny on the county’s property tax rate will bring in $83,341 in revenue, so approximately 9 cents would have to be added to the tax rate to cover the revenue shortfall, Culler said.

“This includes no raises, and it includes only outside agencies we are required to fund,” Culler said. The only two optional outside agencies the committee decided to provide funding to this year are the county’s volunteer fire departments and the Carter County Rescue Squad, according to Culler.

“We talked to our Finance Director, and he said he didn’t see a lot of fluff in these budgets,” Culler said, adding the committee is still looking at ways to cut expenses. “We don’t want a tax increase, but as most of you know, we started the year in the hole, and we have to have something to fill that hole. And, to be honest with you, that is 5 cents.”

“If you don’t want a tax increase, we’re going to have to cut some services,” she added.

Culler invited all of the commissioners to attend the budget workshops and meetings and offer any advice they have in areas to cut the budget.

This year’s budget includes mandatory increases the county has no control over — including state-mandated raises for elected officials and the rising cost of health insurance.

The state sets salaries for county elected officials, but the state provides no funding for those raises, creating an unfunded-mandate for increases. Earlier this year, members of the Commission addressed the burden placed on local governments when the state orders increases in the salaries of the county’s elected officials.

In March, the Commission approved a resolution seeking to send a message to state officials regarding these unfunded mandates. By an overwhelming majority, the Commission passed a resolution asking the County’s representatives to the Tennessee General Assembly to investigate and carefully reconsider any legislation that places new financial burdens on counties without providing a mechanism to fund those obligations. The resolution also asks the state elected officials to support legislation that would relieve or reduce the financial burden upon the counties for funding of annual mandated increases in the salaries of elected or appointed officials.

This year, the county is facing more than $42,000 in state-mandated raises for elected and appointed officials, with annual salaries increasing between $3,400 and $4,400. The cost to fund this year’s mandated raises would add approximately half a penny to the tax rate. Since the 2015-16 fiscal year, the salaries for the elected and appointed officials have increased by more than $100,000.

The county is also facing a rise in the cost of health insurance premiums, which came in 7.5 percent higher this year over last year’s rate.

According to documents obtained from the Carter County Finance Department by the Elizabethton Star, between all of the departments, the county’s cost for health insurance increased by more than $152,000 this year. That increase equates to roughly 1.83 cents on the tax rate.

The Budget Committee is scheduled to hold their next budget meeting on Tuesday, May 29, at 6 p.m. at the Carter County Courthouse.