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Claiborne County budget committee hears $101.7M FY2025 proposal, finance director cites mandated costs for 4% tax increase
Summary
The Claiborne County Budget Committee heard a Finance Director presentation on May 20 outlining a proposed $101.7 million FY2025 budget and a proposed 4% increase in property-tax revenue need, driven largely by mandated services, higher insurance costs and a state ratio study; the committee approved line-item transfers and opened the hearing to public questions.
Mitchell Cosby, chair of the Claiborne County Budget Committee, called the May 20 public hearing to order and the committee approved the agenda and minutes before hearing a budget presentation.
The Finance Director told the committee the FY2025 proposed budget totals $101.7 million and that the property-tax revenue needed is $16,192,000 — an increase of $625,600, or about 4% over FY2024. The proposed tax rate is $2.4383 per $100 of assessed value, up $0.1348 from the FY2024 rate of $2.30. The director attributed most of the increase to required costs: an estimated $365,000 increase for ambulance service the County is required to provide, roughly $58,000 in mandated salary increases for elected and appointed officials, and about $202,650 in higher insurance premiums for medical, property and casualty and workers compensation.
The Finance Director also said a State-mandated ratio study reduced assessed values by about $23.8 million and accounted for roughly one-third of the tax-rate change; new construction and other additions increased assessed value by about $9.1 million, leaving a net assessed-value reduction of roughly $14.7 million. The director said that, excluding the ratio study, the proposed tax-rate increase would be $0.0942.
The committee approved intra-department line-item transfers in Fund 101 (General Fund) and Fund 116 (Landfill) after the Finance Director explained the transfers were intended to move budgeted funding onto the correct lines. The motion to approve the line-item amendments was made by Sherry McCreary and seconded by Rosemary Barnett.
During public questions, the Finance Director projected a beginning FY2025 General Fund balance of about $3 million, which he said would cover roughly three months of average monthly expenses (about $1 million). Committee members and staff addressed the Circuit Court theft that affected multiple years of receipts: the County Attorney and the Finance Director said the County's insurance is expected to pay roughly $136,000 to the Circuit Court and the County will remit about $481,000 to cover remaining losses; the Circuit Court is to return owed fees and fines to the County so there will be no anticipated net loss to County government. A public commenter urged the County to support State legislation that would return surplus State revenue to local governments.
The Finance Director noted that state-mandated services and inflationary pressures together have driven higher projected costs. The committee did not adopt the countywide resolutions required to finalize the budget — the Finance Director explained that adopting the annual County budget involves three separate Commission resolutions (Appropriations Resolution, Tax Rate Resolution and Charitable Contributions Resolution) that will be on the Commission agenda following the public hearing.
A motion by Tim Shrout, seconded by Zach Mullins, adjourned the Budget Committee meeting at 6:11 p.m.
What comes next: the County Commission will consider the three resolutions necessary to adopt the FY2025 budget and set the tax rate at its meeting following this hearing.
