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Wilson County adopts 2025-26 tax levy and budget; commissioners debate employee pay
Summary
The commission set the property tax levy at $1.9089 per $100 of assessed value and approved the 2025-26 budget and several appropriation and grant resolutions. One commissioner said the county did not go far enough to address employee pay; several commissioners declared conflicts of interest before the budget vote pursuant to state code.
The Wilson County Board of County Commissioners on Monday adopted the fiscal 2025-26 property tax levy and approved the county budget and several related appropriations and grant resolutions.
Resolution 25-6-3 set the county tax levy for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2025, at $1.9089 per $100 of taxable property. Commissioners then considered Resolution 25-6-4, the appropriations resolution for county funds. The commission voted to substitute corrections the budget committee had made earlier in the evening and then approved the substituted budget.
Several other budget and appropriation items passed during the meeting, including a Board of Education budget amendment (Resolution 25-6-5), line item transfers for emergency management (Resolution 25-6-6), line item transfers in the sheriffs department (Resolution 25-6-7), appropriations from general and other fund balances to various line items (Resolution 25-6-8), acceptance of a homeland security grant (Resolution 25-6-9), a litter grant (Resolution 25-6-10), an increase in litigation taxes for General Sessions Court (Resolution 25-6-11), and a change to the income eligibility limit for the property tax freeze program (Resolution 25-6-12). All of these were recorded as passing in the minutes.
Before the budget vote, several commissioners who are county employees publicly acknowledged conflicts of interest pursuant to state law. Commissioner Lauren Breeze read an acknowledgment under the Tennessee Code Annotated (transcribed as "Pursuant to TCA 5 5 1 12 and TCA 12 4 1 0 1 a") stating she had a conflict because she is an employee of Wilson County Finance but would vote according to her conscience.
Commissioner Kurtz spoke against the budget on employee‑pay grounds. "I don't think this budget adequately takes care of the employees and the pay that they need to make," Kurtz said. He said the commission had not sufficiently explored options to raise employee compensation and stated he would vote against the budget for that reason.
The clerk's roll call on the budget substitution and final budget resolution was recorded in the meeting minutes; the transcript records the tally as spoken during roll call. The minutes show the resolutions passed.
The fiscal actions approved at the meeting also included acceptance of federal and state grants; county staff indicated those grants will be administered through the relevant county departments. The property tax freeze income limit was amended; the specific new income threshold was not provided during the meeting but a commissioner said it would be circulated the following day.
County Finance Director Aaron Mader and the budget committee were thanked in the meeting for the work on the budget. The minutes indicate several numerical corrections were made on the floor and then substituted into the appropriation resolution prior to final approval.
