The City Council approved a budget amendment to a $16.36 million budget almost as soon as it passed it, Thursday night at the City Council Meeting.
It is still unclear what the new property tax rate may be after the recent Hamilton County reassessment. The current assessment is $1.338 per $100. The city council, by state law, must roll back the tax rate after reassessment to assure there is no “windfall” to government coffers. The city is allowed to raise the rate by resolution after the certified rate is set. Calculating a 30 percent increase in property values would put the certified tax rate after the reassessment to be between $1.03 and $1.13.
Mayor Brian Williams released the following statement:
As Mayor, and on behalf of the members of East Ridge City Council, I would like to share the reasoning for the Budget Amendment.
Every year the head of each city department submits a list of their needs to the City Council. We assess the need of each item requested, carefully evaluating it for its significance to the city’s operations. This year the original list of the departments’ needs totaled over $4 million. However, we trimmed down the list to include only the most essential items at a cost of approximately $1.1 million above the balanced budget.
City’s crucial needs totaling $1.1 million below:
|
New Parks & Recreation Part Time Employee |
Need for additional part time employee for weekends and rotate between full time employees |
|
New Traffic Control Employee |
Traffic employee for help with painting, signs, signal inspections, etc. |
|
2 New Police Officers |
2 additional Officers |
|
Hamilton County Ambulance Service (Buy-in) |
Transfer to Hamilton County EMS from private providers. 1-time payment spread over 4 years. |
|
Salary Pool Stabilization |
To help stabilize the eroding salary structure within the City. Pool will be used to stabilize salaries to be comparable with other area cities and aid in job retention and recruitment. |
|
Paving |
Combine with $500,000 in State Street Aid Funds to work on the worst sections of roadway in the City. |
To be able to provide some of the crucial needs of our various departments, the Council voted at our June 24th Council Meeting to amend our 2021-2022 Fiscal Year Budget. Until we receive the certified tax rate from the Hamilton County Assessor of Property, we are unsure of any impact to the tax rate for the approved budget amendment.
Your City Council works diligently to be fiscally responsible with your tax dollars and we do not take the decision of implementing any possible tax increase lightly. The budget with the approved amendment items can be found on the City’s website at www.eastridgetn.gov. You may contact us at [email protected] with any comments and questions.
