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BY ROBERT SORRELL
Star Correspondent

The Elizabethton City Council on Thursday approved an 8-cent tax increase that would go toward street paving.

Councilman Kim Birchfield voted against the increase, which was heard on first reading.

The current tax rate is set at $1.56, which was set as the certified tax rate during the tax year 2021 reappraisal, according to Finance Director Preston Cobb.

If approved on second reading, the property tax rate will increase to $1.65, an increase of 8 cents. Doing so will increase the paving budget by $240,000, according to Cobb. That’s an approximately 53% increase to the annual paving budget, increasing the current $455,000 to a new total of $695,000.

Mayor Curt Alexander said increasing funding for the street department will “make our streets look better.”

The tax rate increase exclusively pays for paving projects and not day-to-day operations in the city, Alexander said.

City Manager Daniel Estes said that once work concludes on West Elk Avenue and Broad Street, paving will likely move to G Street and then other streets in the city.

The proposed budget, which includes the tax rate increase, covers continued operations in the city, capital projects, and pay increases, including a 5% across-the-board raise. Department budgets have been adjusted in order to make the pay increases.

Councilman Mike Simerly told council and the public that the city’s tax increase appears to be one of the lowest increases of any municipality in the region.

All councilmen, except Birchfield, also voted to increase water and sewer minimum monthly bills for all meters on first reading.

The current minimum monthly bill for a standard residential sized meter is $18.95 for city customers and $25.84 for regional customers per month. The current sewer cost is $18.32 per month, according to Cobb.

Estes said that due to inflation and other costs, the city has proposed a $1.50 increase to the water base charge for the standard residential meter sizes and a proportionally distributed increase to the larger meters, as well as a $1.50 increase to the sewer charge.