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 County Finance Director Robert Daniel explains end-of-year budget amendments to Bedford County's 2007-08 budget as commissioners Joe Tillett, left, and Jeff Yoes look on. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo] |
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The county's tax rate would remain at its current rate of $2.27 per $100 of assessed value if the finance committee's recommendation is adopted.
The county commission held a special called meeting Monday night, not long after the finance committee had adjourned, to wrap up some loose ends before the fiscal year ended at midnight. Commissioner Billy King tried to open a discussion of the proposed new budget, but County Mayor Eugene Ray ruled him out of order, saying that for a special called meeting, only items on the published agenda may be considered.
"It's nothing against you," Ray told King. "It's just the rules."
Commissioners approved a continuing resolution Monday night which allows county departments to keep operating at 2007-08 spending levels until the 2008-09 budget has been approved.
Commissioners are divided about what budget decisions to make in this particularly tight budget year. Energy costs have hit the county hard, especially county departments like the school system, the highway department, the sheriff's department and the ambulance service, which have fleets of vehicles. In addition, tax revenues have been affected by the sluggish economy.
Raising property taxes would likely be unpopular given the tight economy, but some of the finance committee's cuts have drawn criticism from county employees.
The finance committee insisted on 5 percent cuts to most county departments and decided to give a one-time $400 bonus instead of a cost-of-living raise to county employees. Commissioners also refused to grant six new employees that had been requested by Bedford County Emergency Medical Services to man its new station next to the new Heritage Medical Center.
Volunteer Fire Services Inc., which is technically not a county agency but which receives almost all of its operating funds as a contribution from the county, will get $922,610, $178,000 less in 2008-09 than it did in 2007-08, if the finance committee's recommendation is approved. The finance committee cut the contribution by 5 percent and also refused to fund $123,000 in depreciation. In addition, VFSI will have to bear some insurance costs which had formerly been paid by the county.
Finance committee member Joe Tillett said even the $922,610 is too much to be taken from the county-wide budget. Tillett believes that city residents should not have to fund VFSI since it is not normally called to respond to fires within the city. He said the county should give VFSI only the $641,806 which the county will receive in "situs-based" state tax revenue on behalf of rural residents. If more than that is required, Tillett said last month, it should come from a fire tax district levying a special property tax rate on rural residents.
BCEMS board members, who met Monday afternoon, said they'll have to place ambulance crews at the new station regardless, due to its proximity to the hospital, and that will probably mean pulling crews away from, and thus closing, a smaller outlying station, such as the recently-opened station near Cascade School.
No specific staffing decisions were made Monday night, as BCEMS board members waited for the county budget to be finalized.
Finance committee member Joe Tillett, in an opinion column in Sunday's Times-Gazette, said the finance committee had not directed the closure of any BCEMS stations, but BCEMS board member Joe McCurry said that would be the effect of the committee's actions.
"This statement about not having to shut a station down, in my opinion, is inaccurate," said McCurry.
Board members said that if BCEMS doesn't get the six new employees, who had been projected in the agency's growth plan for several years, more stress will be placed on existing crews.
"Our number of calls has progressively increased," said board member Whitney Neeley, "but the amount of employees is staying the same."
McCurry said the BCEMS employees he's spoken to are even more concerned about the impact of increased call volume than they are about not getting a cost-of-living raise.
Courthouse officials, represented by Assessor of Property Ronda Helton, also circulated a letter asking the finance committee to reconsider its removal of educational incentives for public officials. The incentives reward county employees for participation in the County Officials Certificate Training Program.
The full commission will meet at 7 p.m. July 8 in the second floor courtroom at the county courthouse.
Property tax rates
Proposed county tax rates as recommended by the Financial Management Committee:
General fund: $1.11 per $100 assessed value
General purpose school fund: $1.02
Debt service: 10 cents
Highway / public works: 4 cents
TOTAL: $2.27
County expenses
Proposed county expenditures as recommended by the Financial Management Committee.
General purpose school fund: $47,646,737 (increase of $4,359,009)
General fund: $16,458,615 (decrease of $319,944)
Bedford County Nursing Home: $8,946,634 (increase of $433,123)
Debt service: $7,985,651 (increase of $532,992) Solid waste: $1,014,773 (increase of $62,893)
Child nutrition: $3,791,829 (increase of $668,141)
Highway - public works fund: $3,079,936 (decrease of $1,209,875) The department is rolling out of a debt-funded building program.
School-age care program: $594,706 (increase of $112,560)
Special purpose fund: $436,130 (increase of $15,826) This fund, derived from rural sales tax revenues, funds rural animal control, among other functions.
Special purpose fund (hospital revenue): $407,500 (no change)
Tennessee Vocational Center: $134,163 (decrease of $249) This fund tracks the state's repayment of the cost of building the center, which was financed and paid for by the county.
Drug control fund: $11,500 (no change)
life-long citizen's question
Also, how much is it going to cost the county to buy land, pave it, and maintain it to place these cars on?
I don't have a paved parking area to park my car on, since I can't afford it, so why should my tax money be spent to pave an area to park a patrol car on?
Does all the county employees that take a car,truck, SUV, Bus or whatever they may drive home have a paved driveway to park the car, truck, SUV, Bus or whatever they may drive?
Ah, It's just an example that the people saying that the officers should park patrol cars have no idea about law enforcement or it's function. Every time that marked vehicle is on the road regardless of it's destination, it is in the process of detering crime. "Officer presence" is a deterent in itself. Joe criminal has no clue if the officer is on routine patrol or commuting.
If you people don't like it I say get over it. Until you put in the hours and do these guys jobs none of you have any comments to make. I don't care who you are or how poitical you think you may be. Regardless of those issues crime will coninue and our jails will continue to fill to the point where it will cost this county millions in potential lawsuits. And that my friends will not be the fault of the Sheriff's Department but our county leaders. They have been informed of the situation so the ball is in their court so to speak.
What are we going to do in that circumstance. I'm sure the Sheriff will be to blame out of pure ignorance. What if all the county jailers decided not to come to work tommorrow? From some of our leaders and some of the publice they probably don't want to. They feel like they are being portrayed as a burden on the county. Which group of you wise old souls are going to step up and put up with 160 inmates for what the guys and gals are payed. Don't all get in line at once now.
Point is some of our less desirable people on here think that these workers should be lucky to even have the opportunity to work for such a fine county. And some do, to bad their community does not feel the same about them.
I bet half of you guys would not have the you know what to stand by yourself, with no weapons of any kind, amongst 40-50 incarcerated inmates by yourself. They are so understaffed with the officer to gaurd ratio it's only a matter of time before something bad is going to happen. And that will cost us dearly financially. Especially if a state manpower study is ever done and it is determined that our county put them in this situation to begin with.
Who wants to personnaly want to start breaking out their checkbooks. I bet when and if this ever happens there will be nobody in that line.
Some people on here need to look in right direction and remember that we all have families that we want to go home to. It's just that some of us take the risk every day of that not happening. How do you put a price on that kind of stress.
It's a fast moving train that keeps gaining speed. I just hate it for the guys that are on board when it finally crashes. They will be the victims of our ignorance and lack of giving a crap.
Just sick and tired of Law enforcement getting the blame for every little thing. Man the are here every day to protect us. Why should they? Do some of us on here even deserve that kind of dedication? I know a few who on these blogs who don't, but I bet you they would expect it. Gives a new meaning to an old saying. I gues they are all just Public Servants. BS
***End of Rant***
I think there is some confusion on the animal control offices. There are 2 animal control offices. One is the city. It is called Shelbyville Animal Control and the other is Bedford County Animal Control. The Shelbyville Animal Control takes care of the area within the Shelbyville city limits while the Bedford County Animal Control takes care of the rural areas - outside of the town of Normandy. Their town government will not allow them to pick up there.
The Shelbyville Animal Control has its own budget funded by the city taxes. The Bedford Animal Control is funded by county taxes but there budget is very limited so yes they do rely on donations. They pick up rural animals as I said earlier they are quite full.
We all agree Bedford County Animal Control is not getting half a million dollars. I am glad you are concerned about our tax dollars. If you really want to get your answers to where the money is going, you might should go to the meeting. You will find out more there instead of just reading the summary in the paper. I bet you will find out what the paper meant by "among other functions".
All I was trying to do was correct some statements that people were making that were not accurate. Thanks for letting me speak.
Also, you are aware that the deputies are taxpayers as well, right?
Chris P.,
Ah, so your suggestion is that they each have a car, but leave it at work? Where would you propose they park all of those vehicles? There isn't room in the parking lot of the Sheriff's Department, so shall they DRIVE them to some parking lot somewhere so that they can sit- or be vandalized - using GAS to get to that parking lot - wherever it may be. Also, how much is it going to cost the county to buy land, pave it, and maintain it to place these cars on? Do you have any idea how many of the deputies live within the city limits and within minutes of the Sheriff's department, thus making your argument about gas costs pointless?
It is always easy to throw out gripes - but do you have a realistic solution, or are you just finding somewhere to place the blame that some of our county leaders have made bad decisions?
I DID NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT SHARING PATROL CARS JUST NOT DRIVE THEM HOME @ THE TAX PAYERS EXPENSE @ THE PRICE OF GAS ITS COSTING US 5.00 - 20.00 PER DAY DEPENDING ON WHERE THE OFFICER LIVES
Whatever it leads you to believe is a mute point.
I plainly said the BUDGET REPORT says they are Allotted a half million dollars.
Does that mean Animal Control sees a half million dollars? No
Just as I don't believe it cost $50 for an aspirin at the hospital but you are charged that anyway.
And I will repeat the statement I said before, Animal Control does not pick up animals roaming free outside the city limits to my knowledge.
I have no problem nor no issues with Bedford County Animal Control Center.. but I do believe it is run mostly of volunteers and donations.
The budget that was printed was County budget not City budget... Now is there more money allotted for Animal Control inside the City Budget? You better believe there is.
And Jerome Do you think Animal Control is getting a half million dollars for Rural Animal Control...or even could spend that much just on RURAL Control?
Thanks, Jerome. I was going to remind her of that comment as well.
I wanted to clarify the statement in the article so that others who didn't know that animal control was not the primary recipient of that amount. It was not clear in the statement in the article and I am sure it was not intended by the author for the reader to interpret it that way. However, that is how it reads.
Dianatn,
What is your point? Here is a quote from you on the small vet blog. What am i missing here?
"Your only options will be to nicely talk to your new neighbor or continue to put up with his dog. Or you could put up a fence (which isn't cheap) or you could find out where the county Animal Control service is because according to the budget report we are spending almost a half million dollars on Rural Animal Control." - Dianatn
Just curious which point you are trying to make. Do you know that the money is not going to animal control? Or, do you know that it is going to animal control per the post on the blog?
Your statement on the blog leads one to believe that you understand that money is going to animal control and they are not doing their job.
>>>In any case, make no mistake the Bedford County Animal Control is not getting almost half a million dollars!<<<<
You see that was my entire point I am sure Bedford County Animal Control is not getting almost a half million dollars question is, Who is?
Another notation about the article and the Special purpose fund: $436,130 (increase of $15,826) This fund, derived from rural sales tax revenues, funds rural animal control, among other functions.
Not anywhere near the $436K goes to bedford county animal control - this statement is very misleading to say the least. The majority of the money goes to the OTHER FUNCTIONS. I am quite certain a big chunk was for the new fire trucks. In any case, make no mistake the Bedford County Animal Control is not getting almost half a million dollars!
Sorry to backtrack, but why do people keep saying they should park patrol cars? Do you realize that if you make the officers share vehicles, they won't be parked at all? Rather, they will be used non-stop, increasing the number of times they must be serviced, and requiring replacement more often.
I think that maybe the reason the patrol cars are being singled out is because they are noticed with their markings and lights, but I believe there are many other offices of the county which are issued vehicles that are MUCH less important. Why don't we start looking there if you want to talk about gas? In all county departments, someone driving to and from work - with no emergencies to respond to and no real need for a car - those should be dealt with before you ever start talking about the patrol cars.
It makes me wonder if the person(s) who started the "park/share the patrol cars" fight to begin with could be doing so to take attention away from what REALLY needs to be fixed in this county.
Let's get past the "fluff" and get to the real issues. Where is the money going? Are we really so broke because of legit expenses, or do we just have a few unqualified representatives making bad choices? We as citizens have a right to know, but we should do research and participate in finding a resolution, not buy into every opinion thrown out, completely selling out those who protect us.
DianaTN and helpushelpyou,
We do have county animal control. I don't think they are allowed by some of the parts of the county (like the city of normandy) to patrol it. I don't know what part of the county you are in and whether it is covered by the city or the county. I also don't know what your issue is - as I believe they have certain animal laws (that are different from the city) that they must adhere to. You can check out their site at
http://www.bedfordtnanimalcontrol.org/
They are overloaded with animals right now - so if you want to see where your tax dollars are going stop in and see all of the county animals they are picking up and taking care of.
im with you on that Dianant. i live in the county and there is a large problem with stray dogs in my area. you call and they tell you "we do not patrol or handle this problem" well there you go! why do we have to pay for someone to ride around in the city when they are not offering to help any of the county out? almost a half a million being fleeced from county residents! i bet if you looked a little deeper you could find alot more waste!
>>>Special purpose fund: $436,130 (increase of $15,826) This fund, derived from rural sales tax revenues, funds rural animal control, among other functions<<<<
What exactly is this? The county doesn't do animal control in rural areas, that I am aware of?
if they would park the patrol cars @ city hall instead of letting officers drive them back & forth home some of which live way out of town...
could save the city & county several dollar in fuel alone. remember we the people are having to pay for this & i for one dont see the need for the extra miles or fuel!!!!!!!
You better believe I'm going to be there and I hope the rest of us who serve the public will be there too. If you're part of Bedford EMS, I urge you to come as well (if you're not on shift, that is).
Please show up everyone this vote will impact us all. We need this good old boy system out. Joe is so far off in the way he thinks. It is sad the day is coming to where if you need EMS,police,or fire there not going to be there. I hope we get the support we need from the community to get these people out of office.