Fire Department Funding Hot Topic with Budget Committee
The Jefferson County Budget Committee continued their work on the fiscal year 2017/18 budget earlier this week with a review of the County’s Debt Service, Capital Projects and Non Profit requests. Included in the non profit were funding requests from the various fire departments, the Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Alliance, Jefferson County Humane Society and the Boys and Girls Club. The total request for non profits came in at $1,420,000 and represented an average of 34% of the various non profit’s total budget. Increases in funding were requested from all County Fire Departments, with an additional request from the Dandridge Volunteer Fire Department, as well as bump in funding for the Chamber of Commerce.
Discussion regarding the Fire Departments requests centered around the need for a consensus among departments and the need to find some equitable way to divide funding to address the needs of departments that answer the bulk of the County calls. Committee Member Carmichael offered a motion, 2nd by Committee Member Douglas, to charge the Jefferson County Public Service Committee to meet with the Fire Chief’s Association to discuss restructuring boundaries, develop a funding rubric and look at the possibility of combining departments. The motion was unanimously approved and the meeting will take place before the Budget Committee convenes to approve non profit funding later in April.
Jefferson County Capital Projects funding request came in, including trustee Commission and interest on Capital notes, at $567,662. Two cents of the property tax has previously been designated for Capital Projects for the County and is combined with Litigation funds, which can be used for specific projects. This year the worth of a penny is up from $116,400 in the current fiscal year to a projected $119,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. Jefferson County Director of Finance Potts informed the Committee that a $54,362 shortage in the Capital Projects projected budget can possibly be covered by additional monies in the litigation fund. High dollar projects on the list are painting the interior and exterior of the Courthouse for a total of $182,758 and IT Servers for $120,378.
Total expected expenditures for Debt Service are $7,523,724 which is down slightly from the current fiscal year. County debt lies in the $76 million dollar range but it is expected to drop sharply in 2023. Director Potts stated that budget request were generally up this budget season. In addition to business concerning the fiscal year 2017/18 budget, the Committee addressed several budget amendments. Most were general housekeeping in nature and all were approved unanimously.
