In a cut-and-dry special called meeting, the City of Elizabethton passed their budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
With the passage, the city’s budget will go into effect today.
Mayor Curt Alexander, Mayor ProTem Bill Carter and councilmen Bob Cable, Sam Shipley and Jeff Treadway were in attendance for the meeting. Councilmen Wes Frazier and Richard Tester were absent.
The proposed total revenues for this year are $18,541,952, lower than the $19,312,779 from 2016 but an additional influx of funds through sales tax $10,205,609 to $10,813,099 – the city was able fund raises for employees.
Councilman Richard Tester made a motion to amend the budget during the June 9 Council meeting to include a one percent salary increase for city employees, to go along with a one-time bonus of $500 for full time employees and $250 for part time workers that was included in the recent budget.
Councilman Frazier seconded the motion, which passed unanimously by officials.
While the bonuses were carried over from the 2015-16 budget, the sales tax revenue allowed the city to assist employees, Alexander said.
“That’s something we need to do, take care of our employees,” he said. “It’s been tough the past couple of years but with the sales taxes revenue, we were able to do that this year.”
Before the vote, the council voted to approve the resolution to accept the certified tax rate calculation of $1.7909.
“The property tax rate went down from a $1.80 to $1.79,” Alexander said. “That’s due to a reappraisal from the state that brought property value up so we had to make that revenue neutral. Most residents won’t see a change in that.”
Along with the changes to the raises, the budget also saw an increase of contributions for the parks and recreation department for parks across the city. The total funds available for the department moved from $210,250 from 2016 to $588,285 for the passed budget.
“We’re really trying to focus on our outdoors and our tourism,” Alexander said. “We’ve put money into capital upgrades to our parks … you drive by there on a Saturday, Sunday or most evenings and they are jammed pack with people. The playground equipment and tennis courts are starting to wear down so we’re ramping up on that and working on the restroom facilities. The Tweetsie Trail has really had a big part in that so we’re just trying to utilize the different”