From the Cleveland Daily Banner: The final opportunity for Bradley County government departments to make the case for why their budget for the com
From the Cleveland Daily Banner: The final opportunity for Bradley County government departments to make the case for why their budget for the coming fiscal year should be altered has arrived.
At noon on Tuesday, June 20, the day after Juneteenth, the Bradley County Commission’s voting session has time allotted for budget appeals by department heads.
It is not presently known if departments will opt to appeal the proposed budget for fiscal 2023-24.
Last year, the Election Commission and the Property Assessor’s office made appeals to their fiscal 2022-23 budgets.
Seeking a budget which could accommodate an additional full-time employee, Election Commission Chairman Travis Henry compared the staff, budgets and populations of neighboring counties with that of Bradley County.
Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis and county commissioners pointed to the Election Commission going over budget and giving out bonuses to employees, and voted not to approve its request for additional funding.
Ultimately, after the Election Commission’s budget appeal was shot down, Stanley Thompson, county property assessor, withdrew his budget appeal — which sought to increase salaries for employees, some of which had been there for 20 years making less than $38,000, he said.
For fiscal 2023-24, the Election Commission’s renewed request for funds to support an additional full-time staffer were denied again, in both Davis’ proposal as well as the more recent Finance Committee proposal.
The ratio study, conducted by the Comptroller’s Office, has many departments seeing little growth in their budgets aside from the mayor’s 3% raise for all county employees.
Still, he was pleased to say it was his 23rd year to present a balanced budget which does not require tax increases.
On July 3, the county commission will vote on the proposed budget in an effort to ratify it for the coming fiscal year.
However, another item on the June 20 agenda will determine at what time the county commission will meet on July 3 for that vote.
It is presently set for 7 p.m., but there has been talk of moving it earlier in the day.
At the commission’s June 12 work session, Commissioner Milan Blake proposed shifting the July 3 meeting from its scheduled time of 7 p.m. to earlier in the day at noon, which could allow for commissioners and those who wish to attend the meeting from the public to have more time to relax or travel with family for festivities on Independence Day, July 4.
