The Warren County Commission approved a fiscal year budget Monday that includes pay raises for county employees without increasing property taxes.
Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Scott Rubley said the county currently maintains the seventh lowest property tax rate in Tennessee.
“And the thing that makes me the proudest is we’ve been able to accomplish all these things and a lot of things in the last fiscal year without a property tax increase,” Rubley said. “We are solid, and we’re headed in the right direction, and I’ll make a motion that we approve this budget.”
Rubley said the new budget provides a $1,500 pay raise for all full-time employees along with a $500 bonus. Rubley said part-time employees will receive half of those amounts.
Rubley said the county established a new capital improvements fund to help the county eventually become debt-free Rubley said the budget also includes $153,000 for a school clinic expansion and funding for a new vehicle for the property assessor’s office.
“I appreciate the respect and trust that we have earned through our directors and vice versa with us with them,” Commissioner Phillip Stout said. “When we first went on budget and finance, it was a little bit of a struggle with some, you know, just trying to get some things ironed out, but this was probably the easiest budget process that we have ever done.”
Rubley said the commission increased contributions to local volunteer fire departments. Rubley said the funding for those departments has increased from $11,000 in previous years to $35,000 in the new budget.
“Their prices, their insurance, their equipment, everything has skyrocketed, and they’re having a hard time even keeping people because they can’t, they can’t afford the equipment that they need, and we have tried to raise that every year all we could,” Commissioner Gary Prater said.
The commission also approved a list of non-profit appropriations as part of the budget process. Rubley said the commission amended the list to remove a $5,000 contribution to the Experimental Aircraft Association and redirected those funds to the Warren County Emergency Food Bank.
“I think that the nonprofit money was originally indicated for the health and welfare of the people of Warren County, and that, that didn’t actually fall under that purview,” Rubley said.
The budget takes effect July 1.