Council sponsors set alternate FY26 budget to fund fire and police raises, propose 1.69 tax rate

An ad hoc committee of the Chattanooga City Council met to draft an alternate FY26 amended budget that would combine departmental cuts and frozen vacancies with a modest property tax increase to fund fire and police pay raises.

Councilman Henderson, who called the meeting to order, said the goal was "to find some cuts or reallocations from the budget while considering a modest tax increase in order to find a much needed fire police pay raise." He and Councilman Davis are the amendment—s sponsor and co-sponsor.

The alternate version the sponsors described would protect core operational departments from cuts (fire, police, public works, parks), restore community development and early-learning funding, and propose an effective tax rate of 1.69 (referred to throughout the meeting as "1.69"). Councilwoman Hill, who prepared a detailed worksheet for the ad hoc group, told members she had identified roughly $18 million in budgeted but unfilled city positions and reduced that list to about $3.9 million of vacancies she recommended as potential freezes or reallocations.

Nut graf: Sponsors said the combination of targeted cuts, vacancy freezes and a modest tax increase would move the council roughly halfway toward the total cost of the pay plan for fire and police the administration has requested. Hill estimated the reductions she proposed total about…