The Greene County Commission's Budget & Finance Committee told county department heads and office holders Tuesday to trim their departmental budget requests by 5 percent.

Commissioner Billy McCamey said that this would be fair and would allow county office holders to pay their employees as they see fit.

McCamey said that doing this, and using part of the General Fund undesignated balance, will allow passage of the budget for fiscal year 2001-2002, more or less as presented, minus the reductions chosen by department heads.

Budget Director Pat Noland said that the General Fund undesignated balance is now about $1.4 million, and it could rise to $1.6 million by June 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

Noland said she has worked through major budget line items, but will not know an exact figure until every item has been reviewed. She said, however, that every time she has tried to make a projection on the ending fund balance in the past, she has had to “eat those words.”

Noland cautioned against using the fund balance to pay for ongoing obligations, saying that doing so will only put the budget process more “out of whack” next year.

“You have ‘Band-Aid'ed this year,” Noland said.

The county budget director said that funding one-time capital outlay projects out of the fund balance is acceptable, but funding recurring expenses causes problems.

“If you fund a raise” or other continuing costs out of the fund balance, she said, “you're adding next year's cost (of the continuing obligations) to (next year's) budget.”

She noted that the county commission had used $340,000 from the fund balance to “balance” the current year's county government budget, and that, in effect, obligated $348,000 of tax revenue growth before it was ever seen.

The budget committee will meet again on Tuesday next week to review reductions by department heads, and to see an updated printout reflecting work done this week.

3.5% Pay Raise Remains

The action leaves a 3.5 percent pay raise for county employees in place, and also leaves several requests by department heads who had sought employee pay raises in excess of that amount in place.

McCamey noted that state law gives elected office holders discretion over how much of their departmental budgets they can use to pay employees.

It was noted that Noland had been asked to use funds that had been earmarked for asphalt by the Highway Department to give $1 per hour raises to employees there.

Road Superintendent J.C. Jones earlier told the committee that the raises will only bring Highway Department employees up to the federal poverty level.

McCamey said that state law gives Jones, as an elected official, the authority to shift funds within his department.

Assessor of Property Eddie Yokley said that his department's budget, without the 3.5 percent raises recommended by the committee, will actually be lower than last year's.

Yokley had asked the budget committee for permission to use money that would have gone for the salary of an employee who left his department and was not replaced to give raises to remaining employees, in order to bring their pay into line with pay for similar work in surrounding counties.

Yokley and other county department heads will, at their discretion, be able to give raises in addition to the 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise if departmental funds are available after they make the 5 percent cut, committee members said after the meeting.

Commissioner Betty Ruth Alexander said that her concerns about raises higher than 3.5 percent came from her desire to see a “basis where everybody is compensated alike.”

Alexander noted that several departments (Sheriff's Department, EMS, Circuit Court Clerk's office, Accounting and Purchasing) now have pay scales with step raises, and noted, “If this scale is working, Eddie's department needs it too.”

Yokley said, “I totally agree,” though he said consideration of work responsibilities needs to be a factor in pay scales. In the Assessor's office, for example, “A clerk should not make what an appraiser makes,” he said.

The committee also asked County Executive Alan Broyles to review a new law that may allow an increase in the litigation tax on documents filed in various county courts. Last year, the county commission approved a $10 tax to be used to pay for the jail/workhouse under construction. Commissioner Alex Edens said he had read of a new bill authorizing use of a litigation tax to pay for courthouses, in addition to jails and law enforcement equipment. Broyles agreed to have the county attorney check on the change.

General Fund Balance Declines

Noland was also asked about how the county government's General Fund undesignated balance had fallen from a reported $2.6 million to $1.4 million.

She reminded the committee that it has used the fund balance to cover numerous expenditures in the past year. A budget amendment to pay for a copier in the County Clerk's office spent $9,528. A vehicle for the emergency management director cost $24,000. Courthouse renovations cost $92,925, Noland said, and even though that money came from the sale of land, the proceeds went into the fund balance.

An adjustment to handle wages incurred in one fiscal year but paid in the next cost $247,415, Noland reminded the committee. A $200,000 transfer to the Employee Health Benefits Self-Insurance Fund also came out of the General Fund balance. Making a part-time employee in the Register of Deeds office full time cost another $9,141, and the county's out-of-pocket cost for a disputed Medicare overpayment was $45,909.

Noland also said that the county experienced two “windfalls” last year, one coming when the Town of Greeneville made a $200,000 payment owed since 1998, and another when the Tennessee Prisoner Board audited local housing of state prisoners over the past five years and wound up paying the county government an additional $290,256.

The county government cannot operate on the assumption that it will receive similar “windfalls” this year, Noland said.

Contributions Reduced

The budget committee also reduced the budget it had earlier approved for contributions to non-profit agencies by 5 percent. Some contributions could not be cut because they were either tied to matching contributions by the town of Greeneville, or to matching state or federal money.

The biggest reduction came in the budget for Keep Greene Beautiful, formerly Keep Greene Clean. That contribution was cut from $10,000 for next year to $3,450. But Broyles pointed out that Keep Greene Beautiful will, in addition, receive $16,300 out of a litter grant that the county government receives annually, because Keep Greene Beautiful handles the educational requirements for receiving the grant.

The budget committee approved giving $1,000 to the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, rather than the $2,000 which had been sought.

The committee also agreed, in brief discussion, to raise the fee it charges businesses in the county for collection of garbage from $15 per “dump” to $21. Broyles said between 70 and 80 businesses pay this fee for collection on different schedules and for different numbers of Dumpsters.

The committee also affirmed its earlier commitment to address any shortfall in the Employee Health Benefits Self-Insurance Fund when and if it occurs, later in the year.

The budget for the county's Self-Insurance fund projects a $480,000 shortfall by year end.

Noland told the committee that this makes her nervous, and said she had an employee medical bill for $24,000 on her desk.

“We'll just have to take a Band-Aid approach,” McCamey said, because the county commission will not raise taxes to fund employee benefits. Only half in jest, he urged the committee to “pray those people get better.”