Cuts fuel budget proposal

Bedford County Financial Management Committee recommended a budget Monday evening that will be considered by the Bedford County Board of Commissioners at its regular monthly meeting July 8.

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)