Commission’s Decline To Approve Tax Levy Leaves Officials Facing Quandary

Last week’s decision by the Jefferson County Commission to decline to approve a proposed tax levy that would increase property tax in Jefferson County by 13 cents has left County officials facing a quandary. On Monday, June 15, 2013, the Jefferson County Commission approved a budget that requires use of County and School System fund balance, movement of pennies from debt service, the use of hospital reserve funds and a tax increase to cover budget increases. Beyond increased expenditures, a decrease in the worth of a tax penny has contributed to the fiscal hole that the County Commission must plug. The Jefferson County Budget Committee worked on the assumption that it would take 45 pennies to balance the $5.2 million dollar deficit in the proposed budget and worked back from that number to arrive at the recently failed funding formula. In a tight vote(11-10) the Commission Approved the budget proposal but could not find the 11 votes needed to instigate the tax levy which included the increase of 13 cents, and would bring the Jefferson County property tax rate to $2.18.

The process for addressing the funding of the budget has raised some questions among Commissioners. Generally speaking, if a proposed budget passes, the funding for that budget is also approved. Tennessee Code and CTAS clearly address the failure to approve a County budget, however the situation that Jefferson County currently finds itself, with an approved budget but no means of funding, is not clearly addressed. Budget Committee Chairman Roger Griffith stated that, because the recommendation from the Budget Committee stands, the budget will not be returned to the Budget Committee before finding its way back to the Full Commission floor. He said that the County Commission will meet in a Called Meeting on July 29, 2013 to address the tax levy issue and that, should the tax levy proposal again fail, the Commission could look at cuts to the budget. According to Chairman Griffith, the public hearing that was held prior to the July 15, 2013 meeting will suffice and another public hearing is not set at this time. Should the budget pass the Full Commission Body and be vetoed by Jefferson County Mayor Palmieri, it will be returned to the Commission floor. The County is currently working on an extension of the 2012-2013 budget and tax levy and will continue to do so until a fully funded budget is approved for fiscal year 2013-2014.