Members of the Carter County Budget Committee heard requests for increased funding from several county departments on Monday evening.

Monday marked the second budget hearing for the committee as they work on drafting a proposed budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

One of the increases in expenditures this year comes from an increase in the health insurance premiums for county employees. Carter County Finance Director Christa Byrd informed the committee members that the county will see an 8.65 percent increase in their insurance through BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. That is a smaller increase than the county saw last fiscal year of 13.65 percent.

Many of the county’s office holders and department heads also requested additional funds to provide pay raises for their employees. Many of the officials and department heads requested a percentage raise for their employees ranging from 4 percent to 5 percent in the requests. County Trustee Randal Lewis asked that he be allowed to keep a portion of the fees he collects through his office to fund raises for employees. Carter County Administrator of Elections Tracy Harris asked for a flat increase of $1,500 to the salary of both of her office’s full-time employees.

Overall, the requests from the officials and department heads totaled $585,467.89 in increased funding for the county’s General Fund budget over last year’s allocations.

Byrd advised the committee to consider the General Fund carefully this year when setting the budget.

“We left our General Fund severely out of balance last year,” Byrd said. “We took almost half-a-Million dollars out of our fund balance last year to balance the General Fund.”

During the 2016-17 budget cycle, the county’s estimated revenue was $14,885,990.41. The expenditures in the budget totaled $15,358547.28 which left the county having to pull $472,556.87 from the fund balance just to cover expenses.

In addition to using the fund balance to bring balance to the general fund expenditures, the County Commission approved funding for several items throughout the year that also drew down the county’s reserve coffers. The largest of those allocations was a one-time appropriation of $500,000 for renovations at the Carter County Health Department. The state is funding the largest share of that project, but the county had to provide funding for the Health Department to secure those state dollars. The other significant expenditure to come from the fund balance was $119,003.29 to cover continued operations and improvements at the Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter.

According to the documents prepared by Byrd and her staff for Monday’s budget hearing, the county is anticipating a slight increase in revenue for the upcoming fiscal year. Revenues are projected to be $15,005,990.41. However, based on the budget requests made by the county’s departments and outside agencies are seeking $16,194,672.93 in expenditures. This will leave the county short $1,188,682.52 if all the funding requests are approved.

The largest request from a single department came from the Animal Shelter. The request for this year is nearly double the allocation for the shelter during the 2016-17 fiscal year budget.

In the 2016-17 budget, the Commission approved $208,919.92 in funds for the Animal Shelter. Through a contractual agreement between Carter County and the City of Elizabethton, each of those two governments pays for half of the operating expenses for the shelter.

For the upcoming fiscal year, the Animal Shelter has requested $404,550.51 in funding. Those numbers include an allocation for the recently approved animal control officer program through the Carter County Sheriff’s Office. The funds are being allocated to the Shelter, which will, in turn, remit those funds to the Sheriff’s Office to pay for the animal control officers.

“This is split 50-50 between the county and the city according to the contract we currently have,” Byrd told committee members when discussing the requested funding increase.

Some committee members questioned if the City of Elizabethton would continue to pay half of the expenses with the increase, including the additional money for the animal control program.

“The contract auto-renewed in September for five years, so we have about four-and-a-half years left on that contract,” Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey said. “The contract is very specific. It is very clear. As long as the shelter is open, they will pay half.”

The county’s third budget hearing had been scheduled for April 24, but that meeting had to be rescheduled due to Byrd and Deputy Finance Director Michael Kennedy having to attend state-required training on that day. The next budget hearing will now take place on Monday, May 1, at 6 p.m. at the Carter County Courthouse. On that evening, the committee will hear funding requests from the Carter County Highway Department and the Carter County School System.