Tusculum's Board of Mayor and Commissioners on Monday evening passed the municipalilty's 2008-09 budget, doing so on the first of two required readings.

Before the board acted, Mayor John Foster said the draft budget is balanced.

The document, he said, projects total revenue of $448,100 and envisions total spending of the same amount.

The budget total, the mayor said, reflects a more typical figure for Tusculum than have the budgets for the past several years because no grant funds related to construction of the Tusculum Linear Park Trail are included in the 2008-09 budget.

The trail project was completed last year.

However, Mayor Foster described the budget as one of the "tightest" in years due to economic conditions that are resulting in a dramatic decline in interest rates on the municipal government's investments.

Mayor Foster said he expects Tusculum to earn about $24,000 less in interest income on its investments during the 2008-09 fiscal year than during the current fiscal year.

In addition, he said he expects Tusculum to receive about $20,000 less in state-shared tax revenue during the coming fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the Tusculum government's expenses are expected to be up during the next fiscal year, the mayor said.

He noted that the budget includes a 3 percent salary increase for the government's four employees. The budget also projects a 10.7 percent increase in the cost of employee health insurance, the mayor said.

Foster also said that he had budgeted 20 percent more for fuel in 2008-09 than during the current fiscal year because of increases in fuel costs.

The mayor also said he had budgeted 8.5 percent more for utilities.

Also included in the budget, he said, is $26,000 to purchase a replacement police patrol car and equipment.

Mayor Foster noted that during the board's June meeting, the board will be asked to approve year-end amendments to the current fiscal year's budget.

Also during the Monday's meeting, the Tusculum Board of Mayor and Commissioners approved, on second reading, four amendments to Tusculum's zoning ordinance.

Approved were amendments that:

* set property-line setback requirements for swimming pools;

* enhanced the definition of "customary accessory buildings" by excluding the use of old buses, truck bodies, etc., as storage buildings;

* set time limits and location requirements for the use of portable storage containers at residences; and

* created a requirement for site plans to be filed, and approved, before construction can begin in business, industrial and professional service district zones.

The board also heard monthly activity reports from the Tusculum Police Department and the Tusculum Volunteer Fire Department.

Tusculum Police Chief Danny Greene told the board that during April, Tusculum officers issued 18 citations, including eight for speeding; took seven reports and made seven arrests.

Chief Greene also told the board that on May 13, TPD Officer Dustin Jeffers had been recognized at a regional Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) meeting in Elizabethton for making 17 DUI arrests during the last year.

Mayor Foster, in the absence of Fire Chief Alan Corley, presented the Tusculum Volunteer Fire Department's report for April.

The mayor said that during April, TVFD firefighters responded to four traffic accidents, nine grass and woods fires and five other calls (including fire alarms and controlled burns).

All of the 18 calls to which firefighters responded in April were to points outside the Tusculum municipal limits, the mayor said.