Crossville officials proposing a new budget for the upcoming fiscal year that maintains the current property tax rate while funding several major infrastructure and community projects.
City Manager Valerie Hale said the proposed budget includes a two percent cost-of-living adjustment for all city employees. It also accounts for a projected ten percent increase in health insurance costs.
“A property tax rate increase was not included in this budget, which is good,” Hale said, “We still will remain one of the lowest property tax rates in the state of Tennessee if you all choose not to raise rates, and then the insurance is projected to go up 10 percent just as the water and sewer fund for the second half of the fiscal year.”
Officials said the city expects to receive approximately $8 million in grants during the next fiscal year. The budget also allocates funding for contractual obligations including Central Dispatch, the animal shelter, and the visitor center.
“The whole budget does include a 2 percent COLA for all of the employees, and obviously that includes the water and sewer fund as well,” Hale said. “And then I mentioned the health insurance, and that’s for both funds, too.”
The Water and Sewer Fund budget includes a 3 percent rate increase and an increase in tap fees to support various utility projects. Joe Kerley, City of Crossville Water Resources Director, said the city is adding two employees to staff the Holiday Lake water treatment plant overnight to meet increasing water demands.
“We’ll have the two employees that, we had the two employees were staffed for decades out there, and then West Cumberland in 2009 stopped purchasing water from the city, which was about an average of 100,000 gallons a day,” Kerley said. “But when this pump station goes online it’s three, over three times the amount that we were selling to West Cumberland. Two employees, those two, we had before, so we’ll have to have them to be able to provide enough water for that community.”
Mayor RJ Crawford said the city is being conservative with revenue projections, estimating only a 1 percent increase due to economic uncertainty. Crawford said the council is also reviewing funding for outside agencies, including a proposal to reduce the allocation for the rescue squad.
“But when I when I ran for council and when I ran for mayor the thing that people kept saying is is I want you to be smart with the money that you spend,” Crawford said. “And so then I would say if you were to ask door knock on everyone’s door and they would tell you that’s not money that needs to be spent if our city fire department is doing a lot of those services or is trained to that level.”
The proposed budget also includes $419,000 for new police vehicles and funding for a Main Street traffic signal replacement project. Crawford said the city will continue to evaluate its financial commitments to county-wide services to ensure city taxpayer funds are used appropriately.
“I just don’t think we need to I know it’s small but I don’t want to tie giving or not giving money meaning that we like them or not like them or that they’re doing a good job or not doing a good job,” Crawford said. “I know it may be interpreted that way by some people but the reality is they don’t need the money. I would rather redirect I know it’s $10,000 but if you look at $10,000 here 15 here we look up we’ll have six figures worth of money that can be reallocated for raising from 2% to 3% COLA or adding in the equipment that we need or leave it in the fire’s budget and they can use it as a way to to offset whatever.”
The city council is scheduled to hold three readings of the budget before it is finalized in June.