State comptroller gives firm warning to county budget committee

White County Budget Committee met Aug. 4 to continue the county’s effort to pass a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and a new proposal has been sent to full court, which will meet Aug. 18.

With the expectation that the commission has enough votes to pass the proposal due to the compromises made that night, the Budget Committee approved a proposal for a $1.41 property tax rate.

If the $1.41 proposal does not pass during the Aug. 18 full court meeting, the commission likely would not have enough time to get another proposal running before the deadline at the end of the month. If a budget is not passed by the deadline of Aug. 31, the state comptroller will come in and set the county’s budget.

The proposal also includes the emergency management agency director staying as a part-time position, with a bigger raise. Initially, a full-time position was proposed but failed to garner the support needed to pass the budget. A parks and recreation director position remained in the budget proposal. Also, the longevity pay for county employees was waived in lieu of a one-time $4,500 raise for all county employees who are listed under the general fund.

The Highway Department also stands as an outlier in the budget, as they will be provided the same amount of money as other county employees, but the department will be able to allocate their raises and longevity pay as they see fit. The Highway Department made it clear during the committee’s meeting that they would prefer to keep the longevity pay, so this compromise was made, while also satisfying the departments under general fund, such as the sheriff’s office, White County Emergency Medical Service, and more.

Kyle Goff, Derrick Hutchings, and County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson voted “yes” to send the proposal to full court. T.K. Austin and David Cranford voted “no.” A majority vote was received, so the proposal will be sent to the full court.

Before the Budget Committee began, there was a brief meeting with Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower, as well as his assistant director, Brian Burklin, and communications director John Dunn. The comptroller was there to make his stance clear should the county commission fail to approve a budget by the end of August.

Comptroller Mumpower said, “As county commissions, you really only have one job. And the one job you have to do every year is pass a balanced budget. You do a lot of other things you don’t have to do, but the one job is passing a balanced budget.”

The comptroller then explained what would happen if he had to come in, should the commission fail to pass a budget. Mumpower said he would never raise revenue on the county’s citizens, so he would instead cut discretionary expenses. That includes funding for volunteer fire departments, employee health insurance premiums, support for veterans’ services, animal shelter services, parks and recreation projects, and employee raises. So while Mumpower would keep the property tax rate at the state’s posted rate of $1.21, all of these county expenses would be on the chopping block to meet that lower tax rate.

Later during the budget committee’s meeting, commissioner Roger Mason referred back to Mumpower’s point. He wanted to make sure that, before the committee adjourned, there was a proposal that everyone knew could pass full court.

Commissioner Mason said, “Don’t leave, and don’t adjourn this meeting until we know what we’re doing.”

He later said if the commission leaves without the intent of passing the budget, then, “We’ll be the county commission that ruins White County.”

Most of the budget discussion that night was seeking compromises between everyone’s expectations for a budget. Commissioner Dakota White and commissioner Cain Rogers wanted to keep the tax rate at $1.40 or below. Commissioner Rogers was one who initially suggested keeping the prior deficit a bit higher, which would land it around $450,000, while dropping the rate to $1.40. In the proposal that was shot down in July’s full court, the deficit was lowered from about $500,000 to the $200,000 ballpark range.

County executive Robinson felt that keeping too much deficit is dangerous in case unforeseen emergencies happen. He said the county has been lucky that the deficit did not harm them this year.

Commissioner Austin agreed, saying that working on a deficit can be risky if there are any “Acts of God” such as tornados that would put the county in trouble. Commissioner Hutchings also worried about continuing to pass deficit budgets. The compromise was met to slightly lessen the deficit to around $350,000 and meeting in the middle at a $1.41 tax rate.

Commissioner White, after the discussion on the deficit, said, “A great agreement is when everybody walks away unhappy. And I’m comfortable being uncomfortable to get that completed.”

Commissioner Mason shared the same sentiment saying, “It’s a bit higher than I wanted it to be, but if it gets this budget passed.”

Commissioner Cranford still wanted to discuss giving the employees higher raises than the initial $4,000. While a handful of commissioners were wanting to focus on bringing the tax rate down, Cranford was dedicated to getting higher raises.

There was some talk of potentially removing the remounts for the ambulances. A lot of commissioners felt that was too risky and inappropriate to not keep EMS well supplied, so the remounts were kept in.

There was initially a planned longevity pay for all county employees, but some of the commissioners spoke with department heads to figure out if it was still feasible. After some feedback, the commissioners felt they could get a budget passed easier if they removed the longevity pay and, instead, rolled that money into the raises. Rather than a $4,000 flat raise, removing longevity allowed them to give $4,500 instead. Commissioner Austin and commissioner Cranford felt this was still “kicking the can down the road” on assuring the employees are taken care of long-term, but the proposal to remove longevity pay did pass.

An idea floated by Commissioner Jordan Cocke was to revisit the potential for a new wheel tax. He believed a wheel tax could be fairer at taxing the majority rather than minority. However, passing a wheel tax requires two consecutive votes from the commission across two meetings, and the citizens would have a brief period to petition a referendum. Because of the short timeframe the commissioners have left, the idea was tabled for a future discussion.

After the committee approved the proposal, there was more discussion on whether the proposal would pass in a vote. Some of the commissioners who voted “no” to the prior proposal in July said they would vote “yes” on Aug. 18.

Commissioner Becky Golden was not sure how she would vote at first, but near the end of the meeting she said, “Whatever you put it at, I’m going to vote yes.”

Commissioner Brewington, about the $1.41 proposal, said, “This is blunt right here. Do I think comptroller needs to come here and clean house? You’re darn right. You think there’s some crookedness in here? You’re darn right I think there is. But in order for these guys to get their raises, and get their money, I will vote yes on the 18th.”

During the audience remarks, commissioner Golden also stood up to apologize for remarks she made during the full court meeting last month. Her apology was about a remark concerning clerical positions in the county and if their raises should be equal to services like EMS and sheriff’s office.

Commissioner Golden said in her apology, “What I said was not as much of a raise, not that they didn’t need a raise at all. And I think every clerical person does. And I did make a public apology on Facebook for what I said. I took back what I said and apologized. It did not come out the way my brain was intending it to come out. I do apologize. Not just to you, but to anybody else.”

Budget chairman Goff commended her bravery in standing up to apologize in public. The full court meeting to vote on the proposal will be Aug. 18.

The commission livestreams their committee meetings at White County TN Commission on YouTube. The full court meeting will also be livestreamed.