July 15, 2005 The County Budget--Cost Savings

Dear Residents and Taxpayers of Hamblen County,

The Budget Committee met on Wednesday, July 13.

Sorry, no county commissioner (except yours truly and perhaps Joe Spoone) wants to take the time to look at our county's deficit budget to see if anything can be cut to come up with a balanced budget proposal. Sorry, no county commissioner (except yours truly) has put forth any cost savings ideas.

During the preliminary budget process in May and June, County Commission took no action on any department budget. Instead, each departmental budget was presented by the department head and was simply taken "under advisement" by Commission. At that time, reappraisals and appeals were not complete. We didn't have a certified tax rate from the state. We didn't know about our Worker's Comp Insurance rates. We didn't have a lot of information that we now have.

Last week, we were told that most property reappraisal appeals had been completed and that Hamblen County had received its new state certified tax rate (see my post of July 8). New revenue projections were calculated, and we now know that we have a deficit of about $450,000 if we simply approve everything as it was presented to us without cuts. We are now ready to get down to the job of adopting final budgets and tax rates-- we either cut expenses or raise taxes at this point.

Thus far, not one commissioner, with the exception of yours truly, has put forward a single idea for saving a penny. It appears that only two commissioners (Joe Spoone and I) are willing to take the time to review the budgets we originally took "under advisement" and the new revenue figures that we just got.

I have been on the Hamblen County Commission for nearly 3 years, and I regularly attended Commission meetings for about three years before that. That an elected official would not have a single idea for saving money and, worse, would not be willing to take the time to look for and discuss the possibility of spending cuts is not fair to the taxpayers who foot the bills.

I'm willing to work with department heads and other commissioners to find the areas where we can cut. I made a motion to begin the budget review process to look for areas where spending could be cut to keep our spending within current revenues. Commissioner Joe Spoone seconded it.

Commissioner Spoone remarked that he had never seen Commission just adopt the county government budget without a second look and without a single suggestion for a cut. Commissioner Ricky Bruce said he didn't think there was anything that could be cut. Spoone withdrew his second to my motion because he didn't think the proposal to look for areas to cut would pass.

What can be cut? I put forth a proposal last week that would save the county $60,000+ without cutting services at all. Currently, the Hamblen County Sheriff pays out about $65,000 for civilian crossing guards at the schools. My proposal is that the City of Morristown handle school crossings on city streets and that the Sheriff assign on-duty deputies to cover school crossings outside the city limits.

Before I put this forward, I checked with other counties and found that this is the way school crossing safety is handled in many other areas. This would provide not only greater safety for our children at school crossings, but it would also save money. Commissioner Harville said it was useless to even ask the City about this.

Well, I don't think it is ever useless to ask, and the committee agreed to let me talk to City Council about this. There have been a lot of city-county squabbles in the past, but I hope that the City will agree to provide officers to ensure greater safety at school crossings in the city limits, leaving the county to handle crossings outside the city limits.

County Mayor David Purkey also put forth a savings proposal, saying he thought $25,000 could be saved by cutting out some new equipment upgrades at the jail.

Well, with just those two ideas, there is $85,000 in savings. Not exactly pocket-change as was pointed out by a taxpayer in the audience.

Wonder what a closer examination might find?

Are Commissioners willing to look for other savings? I am.

PS If there are some Commissioners who just don't want to take the time to look for savings, wonder if they would at least appoint a small sub-committee composed of those commissioners who are willing to work on this to look for savings? No.