Facing a $2.16M gap, commission approves 3% COLA for most employees and larger pay increase for sheriff's uniformed staff, shifts property-tax pennies to cover:

Hamblen County commissioners waded into the central budget question on June 4 after Finance Director Amanda told the committee that estimated county expenses exceed revenue by about $2,159,382. She said roughly $396,000 of those overages were capital items that could be paid from fund balance; removing capital left an operating gap of about $1.76 million.

Amanda identified potential offsets — including not filling a vacant magistrate position and shifting some interest income ("moving the pennies") — that together could free roughly $548,000. Amanda said that amount would come close to funding a 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for county employees.

Commissioners voted in stages. First they approved a 3% COLA for most county employees but explicitly excluded the sheriff’s department from that vote. After a prolonged discussion about retention and turnover in the sheriff’s office — the sheriff said the department had lost several officers recently and was struggling to retain staff — the commission approved a separate raise for sheriff’s uniformed, post‑certified personnel. The body voted to grant the sheriff’s uniformed staff a 10% pay increase (the sheriff had urged a larger increase to remain competitive with neighboring jurisdictions). The motion for the sheriff’s increase passed by roll call.

To cover the added recurring expense, commissioners voted to transfer property-tax “pennies” from the school property-tax allocation into the county general fund. The body approved a multi‑penny shift (the motion carried after roll call) intended to provide recurring revenue to cover the pay increases; commissioners and staff noted this relies on expected sales-tax growth and could expose a future risk that the schools would need to use fund balance if sales tax underperforms.

What’s next: county staff will finalize the payroll adjustments, document the accounting for the property-tax shift, and present reconciled fund totals at the June 8 follow-up meeting. Commissioners emphasized the action was taken to address urgent recruitment and retention problems in public safety but acknowledged it creates a policy choice that may need revisiting if revenue projections change.

Exact numbers and future-year impacts will be confirmed in written budget documents and at the next meeting.