The Bradley County Commission met yesterday for a work session. Two resolutions will be on the agenda for next week's voting session.
The Bradley County Commission met yesterday for a work session.
Two resolutions will be on the agenda for next week’s voting session. The first will be for the Ambulance Service Billing Contract, the second a contract for inmate medical care at the Justice Center. Both services have already been through a bid process.
7th District Commissioner Bill Winters gave an update from the Legal and Legislative Committee and recommendations the committee will present to the commission.
The committee recommends inviting the city of Cleveland to join the county in submitting a letter to state legislators and request the Department of Revenue to give the County and City more information on the 911 fee, specifically to provide collection information, actual and projected growth numbers, and payout information.
The Committee also voted to dissolve the Emergency Services Internal Standing Committee. The committee currently handles all ambulance and fire issues. Since Fire and EMS will soon have separate leadership heads, the committee felt it was best to create two separate standing committees.
Bradley County Trustee, Mike Smith, gave his Annual Report to the Commission.
Smith said he has received a lot of positive feedback on the partial payment program. currently, around 1865 are using the program. He estimates $1.5 million in partial payments will come into the county during this fiscal year.
Electronic Billing has also increased over the recent years and Smith said he hopes to reach 40% of tax bills being paid electronically in next year to reduce costs.
While Smith said some were concerned that sales tax would decrease last year, it did not. Sales Tax held strong in 2022 with Tax Revenue in the county last year reaching around $50.7 million.
Smith also discussed the PILOT program which is short for payment in lieu of taxes. PILOT programs used by the County for 2022 totaled almost $2.5 million.
Investment Interest brought in by the County was around $3.1 million bringing the total interest Collected since 2006 to around 19 million dollars.
Smith reported the amount of Excess Fees Returned to County since 2006 now totals 13.3 million.
