Mayor Jason Bailey presented the FY 22 County Budget for all departments to the Budget & Finance Committee of Union County Commission on April 20.
The current proposal is out of balance by some $331,000. About half of the increased cost is mainly due to a proposed change in the procedure for overtime pay for the sheriff’s office. Currently officers receive comp time. But when an officer leaves for usually a higher paying job in another county, the comp time must be paid in full. This payment can be several thousand dollars.
If four to five of the 42 officers leave annually, the cost can climb to over $100,000 and put the financial liability of the department and the county at risk.
So the proposed change is to pay overtime as it accrues. The initial investment to make the change would be outweighed by a smaller annual cost, increased pay opportunities for officers, and no financial liability in the future. Of course, ultimately county commission will decide how to balance the FY 22 budget, but there seems to be plenty of choices from growth money, fund balance, and debt service, to name a few.
Commissioner Sidney Jessee, Jr. enlightened the committee regarding the extensive services provided by Union County libraries in the Library Report and noted that the requested salary increase of $5000 for the Luttrell Public Librarian and $6000 for the Maynardville Public Librarian just “begins to close the gap”.
He also stated that the Census shows a 4.5 percent growth which will trigger MPL to a Level 3 if population is over 20,000.
If this population increase occurs, salaries will be even less competitive. Commissioner reminded the committee that today’s libraries are “more than books” and that Union County Libraries are regarded as exemplary by the state of Tennessee as well as other counties.
Mostly routine movements of money to meet the need occurred in Budget Amendments & Transfers.
Register of Deeds Mary Beth Kitts requested moving money to hire a part-time person to fill in for an employee on medical leave. Kitts noted that she expected the leave to continue after July 1 so she would need a full time employee at that time.
In debt service the committee voted to pay off an outstanding loan of $360,000 to leave only the debts of Paulette Elementary School and school energy upgrades.
State and federal revenues were added in salary and ESSER 1.0 and 2.0 as well as growth money for the virtual school. All budget amendments and transfers were recommended to county commission for final approval.
Mayor Bailey noted that the purchase of the Northeast VFD firetruck will occur after July 1 and would be in the FY22 budget in order to follow the timelines of the Community Block Development Grant.
Budget and Finance will discuss the FY22 Budget in May and recommend a balanced budget to the county commission on May 18.