Wednesday, June 21, 2006

June 21, 2006 First Day of Summer--Budget Process Slows

What a beautiful (and hot) first day of summer!

The budget process in Hamblen County has slowed as the Commission now waits for the arrival of the School Board budget. It was scheduled for June 13th, postponed to June 20th, and then postponed again to June 27th.

Updated calculations and revisions are apparently being made to the original draft of the school budget.

Today, commissioners received information in the mail on the amount of state BEP funding for the 06-07 school year.

For 06-07, state BEP funding will be just over $29,000,000.

During last year's 05-06 budget sessions, state BEP funding was reported as about $27,000,000.

That means that $2,000,000 more state dollars will be coming in for Hamblen County Schools.

Federal funding and local funding (primarily through property taxes, wheel taxes, and sales taxes) make up the balance of school revenues.

I wish I could report that this year's county and school budgets can be found on the county's website, but it seems that we can't do that yet. I will keep pushing for expanded use of the county's website to get budget and other information available to the taxpayers---at no cost.

It would also be helpful to the public if we televised Budget Committee meetings, just like we televise regular monthly commission meetings. The Budget Committee is made up of all commissioners---so Budget meetings are a lot like a regular commission meeting.

Budget Committee meetings--- where major taxing and spending decisions are discussed---could be taped and televised at no cost to the county. We just turn on the camera and leave it set at a wide-angle view.

The public should be able to see and hear what's going on.

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