It took four months of negotiation, but the White County Commissioners passed their budget for the new fiscal year in the eleventh hour Monday night.
Several Commissioners attended the Budget Committee Meeting earlier this month and verbally agreed to pass the budget. Everyone held true, and the budget ultimately passed by a 10-3 vote. Commissioner TK Austin opposed the budget, as he wanted more of a raise for county employees.
“Due to the fact that it is nowhere near enough, and an injustice to the county to pass this budget merely because we’re letting everything fall through the cracks yet again, my vote is no,” Austin said.
Commissioners Jordan Cocke and Thomas Margeson each voted down both the tax rate and general fund appropriations.
White County employees covered in the general fund will receive a $4,500 pay raise, but no longevity pay. For most employees, this raise increases their pay by some eight percent.
Commissioner David Cranford was another vocal advocate for a higher employee raise, but he ultimately voted to approve the tax rate and budget.
Commissioner and Budget Committee Chair Kyle Goff said it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off everyone’s shoulders when the budget was passed. He said the biggest challenge was finding a compromise between two vastly different schools of thought on the budget.
Goff said one part of the committee was comfortable putting the tax rate well above the state certified rate and dramatically improve things like employee wages, while others were more conservative with the rate and wanted other solutions to the issue.
Goff said the committee’s first couple of proposals were aggressive, but he feels like the new budget has a good blend of a low tax rate and an ample investment in employees.
“I can say confidently [Monday night] was the biggest investment we’ve made in our employees since I’ve been a Commissioner, which is four and a half years now,” Goff said. “But the key from here is to keep this up. I think the state and the counties around us are going to be competitive, and we can’t go another five to ten years before we make another significant investment or we’ll be right back in the situation we were in here.”
Commission Chair Derrick Hutchings said he is happy to see the budget done. He said the employee pay increases, particularly longevity pay, was one of the hang ups in the process. Hutchings said now that the budget is finished, he wants to get to work on a few things the Commission has set aside.
“We’re putting some extra funding in the Fire Department now, I really want to focus on that, try to do some more things for them” Hutchings said. “Our volunteer firemen are big helps to us, and we need to help those guys and get some proper equipment for them with this extra funding we provided.”