Rutherford County committee approves budget cleanups, adopts certified tax rate and adds pay table lift and infrastructure earmark

Rutherford County’s Budget, Finance and Investment Committee on June 17 approved a package of year‑end budget amendments, adopted the county’s certified tax rate and directed staff to use a portion of conservative, one‑time revenue to boost employee pay and to seed infrastructure spending.

Finance director Michael told the committee the county is adding about $25 million in unbudgeted revenue for fiscal 2025–26 — largely one‑time receipts including roughly $8 million in investment income, about $1.6 million from state prisoner boarding, approximately $800,000 in opioid funds and several million in property‑tax and trustee collections — and said the net effect of the proposed amendments is about $18 million “to the good.” He also presented the certified tax rate of 1.4885 to the committee for forwarding to the full commission.

In response to the additional revenue, commissioners discussed options for employees and capital needs. Michael proposed increasing the base pay table by 2 percentage points (raising the table to 3.25%), which he said would give most employees a meaningful increase; the committee adopted an additional 2% lift to the pay table. The motion also earmarked the remaining surplus funds, combined with an existing $440,000 set‑aside, to create roughly $940,000 for infrastructure and capital projects (rural roads, turn lanes, sidewalks and joint projects), with expenditures to require a majority commission vote.

The committee approved a number of related budget actions: removing a separate engineering staffing gap by adding an entry‑level engineering technician (pay grade 27 step 5, maximum base pay cited as about $63,903) after the engineering director reported a key inspector is on extended FMLA; increasing Brian Gaither’s paygrade to reflect added responsibilities for an upcoming forensics center; and adding opioid committee‑approved expenditures and $8,318 for advertising contracts into the budget. The committee also set aside $50,000 from the general fund to help local high schools purchase state championship rings (county to match up to $5,000 per team provided schools raise matching funds).

The committee voted to adopt the appropriation resolution as presented and to forward the certified tax rate (1.4885) and related appropriation documents to the full commission for final action on June 22.

Next steps: staff will incorporate the committee's changes into the formal appropriations resolution and present the updated package to the full commission on the scheduled meeting.