Budget & Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

I'm just kidding. Come on. Okay.

It's four o'clock. It is May 28, 2026. It's budget and finance. I call this meeting to order. We've taken the role. Everybody has signed in as being here. Before we approve the agenda, I'd like to add a couple things. Under 3B, approve the minutes. 6A is discussion on insurance. 6B is Mr. Marchersoni and his budget, and 6C would be Ms. Toney and her budget. And with that, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll make a motion.

Got a motion by Mr. Hirschman.

Second.

Second by Ms. Dowell. Any discussion? All those in favor by approving the agenda by aye. Aye. Okay. If you've had time to read the minutes from the 14th. Yes. Entertain a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll make a motion.

Motion by Mr. Hirschman. Second by Ms. Dow Jones. Any comments or revisions? All those in favor by aye. Aye. Okay, public comments. Do you all want to speak or?

Yeah. Okay, yep.

Yes, sir. Okay, no public comments. We're going to budget amendments and school budget amendments. Yes, ma'am. Ms. Carlin Cotton.

Do you have another one of these budget amendments? I have one. Who needs one?

Or here, you can look at it. I'll look at it.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you. That is what I gave you, right? Yes. I don't know.

Should it need that?

No, I'm talking about the budget. Thank you. Budget amendment. That's from Mary Hams.

You can't have that one, though. Is that microphone on?

I will take much of your time I just have a real small budget amendment to make and this is to the coffee County Schools food service budget and I am asking to move some money from fund balance to cover a few expenses that I'm going to have that I did not expect but the part I that the revenues is going to come from fund balance I do feel like in my budget this year that I will probably make back at least half of that anyway so but just to make sure I took it from fund balance but I am getting a serving line at the high school the prior one was that there's three of them from 1976. So I'm getting three serving lines for 119,000, so I needed to move 110,000 to pay for that. Food supplies, the cost of food has gone up significantly, and I do a big summer program, and I did not realize how big it was gonna be last year when I did my budget, so I'm gonna add 175 to school supplies, or food supplies. And the cafeteria personnel, since I am doing such a big summer program, it's costing a little more to hire more people. So I'm moving 25,000. I went a little high on those just because I'm not sure. But I know you get dinged on your audit if you don't have those covered. I'm asking to move $319,000 from fund balance. Like I said, I feel like I can cover most of that with what I'm going to make this year.

And I have a healthy – You have $310,000 on my paper.

Oh, at the very bottom is $310,000, yes. Oh, okay. Sorry. So $310,000 is what I'm going to move. Okay. So my budget, that's what I'm going to move from my fund balance. My current fund balance is $1,966,446.17. And I'm going to be moving the 310 out, which would leave me with $1,656,446.17. So that was just my request. Does the state reimburse you for the food at the end of summer? No, I just get reimbursements per child. And then it just goes back to revenue and it covers all the expenses. But we do a big program. Any questions?

How many are you anticipating serving?

Well, we do, uh, we do, we cover summer school, which is at the middle school, high school and at one elementary. So we feed all those kids and then we do seven day packs at seven day breakfast, seven day lunches on every Thursday. And last year we did about 700. Every week. So that's huge. And you never know how many people are going to show up because it's free to anybody 18 and under. So, I mean, I don't really know how many people show up and what we'll make, but last year we did really, really well. That's a lot of food.

Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody have questions? Entertain a motion to approve.

I make a motion to approve.

We've got a motion by Ms. Nettles. Second. Second by Ms. Dow. Any more discussion? All those in favor, bye. Aye. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Ms. April.

So I have several. Do you want me to do them separately or all together?

I personally would rather you do them separately right now. I know it takes a little longer, but I'd rather do them separately. Because we've got to be able to explain to the rest of the members of our community.

Okay, no problem. Sorry. No, that's fine. 141, 20, 26, 22. This covers some revisions to our state, three straight state grants. So the Innovative School Models Grant, the Well Grant, and then the Special Ed Grant we get from the state. So we just needed to revise those budgets. They've already been approved by the state. We just have to do the budget amendment through you guys because it runs through our general fund. And then we received a Woodman life donation for our flags for our classrooms. So we're bringing that into the budget so we could order those flags for our classroom. And then, um, the TISA, um, funding requires me to record two things separately and I have to do a separate entry. So it's just a required injury I have to do. And that's what you'll see on number four. It's for our juvenile attention kids and our ACT reimbursements. So we'll get the revenue for those and then record the expenditure and it nets out to be the same amount. It's just an injury I have to do. So this is budget amendment 22 to cover those things. And none of this affects our fund balance.

Do we want to do a motion to approve? Yep. I'm going to make a motion to approve this.

Okay, we make a motion to approve 22. Yep. I'll second. Second by Roger. Any discussion?

those in favor by uh okay um 20 141 20 26 23 we receive funding each year or outcome bonus based on our testing scores um so we use that funding to do different things in the district so like after school program or um professional development for our children. This year we decided to do a tutoring program for our kids that had needed some additional help. And we didn't, when I brought the budget amendment to you originally, we didn't put that in there. And so this is to revise our TESA outcome bonus budget within our general budget to cover the after school tutoring program. And then to also, we purchased some analytic software that's gonna be helpful to our high school and middle school. So we did that with our, that wasn't in the budget amendment I presented to you earlier in the year. And then we did some professional development that also was not in that original budget amendment. So this is just to move some funds around in our teeth outcome bonus to take care of those few items that we did in the school year.

Is there currently an after-school tutoring program, or is this brand new?

So we have two different after-school programs. One was just for all the students that needed to stay for their parents to pick them up after work, and then we started a new program for just a special number of students at each school to tutor that needed help. Good.

Okay. Anybody more questions on 23?

I make a motion to approve.

Okay. Motion by Ms. Dowell on number 23 to approve. Second. Second. Second by Mr. Chambers. Any more discussion? All those in favor by aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. Okay.

141, 20, 26, 24. So this is some normal budget moves within my budget. I'm estimating every month to make sure we're not gonna go over on any lines. So I'll just cover the higher items on here. We purchased some additional security software for the district. Actually the cost went up a little bit and we purchased some additional things that we hadn't had to purchase in the past. So that was around $40,000 additional to our software budget for technology. And then the state required me to move the excellence revenue. So I'm doing that in the 93,215 you see at the top and you'll see it at the bottom under revenues. And then we were running a little short in our capital projects um funds so there's tons of things that could come up as we're cleaning buildings and and getting everything back ready for the next school year so um i've put additional 50 000 into our capital projects budget to cover anything that could come up that we might need to do um in that in those areas and then um We also paint and wax all the floors, any rooms that need paint or wax all the floors. So this is just normal kind of summer stuff and corrections in the budget to make sure we don't go over on any lines or give us some room to do some things we need to do for the summer. And none of this affects our fund balance.

Any questions? Take a motion to approve number 24. I'll make a motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Brown.

I'll second.

Second by Mr. Chambers. All those in favor by aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. Okay.

Budget Amendment 141, 2026, 25. So kind of the same situation as the previous one, but I just focused on SPED because our number, our kids' number is going up to service. And then also just the contract, the services that we have to provide to those children, it's just getting a little more costly. Kind of like Carlin said about the food, things just keep going up in that category as well. So this budget amendment covers... Mainly our contracted services line. We've seen a huge increase in that area of need. And so I pretty much doubled our budget. So this will double the budget we currently are brought to you in the very original budget. But I don't think we'll spend all of that. I just wanted to be sure that we had enough to get us through the rest of the school year. So with this budget amendment, we had also had to bring two aides over. That normally would be covered under a federal grant, and the funding just keeps getting reduced just a little bit and just a little bit. And so as our insurance cost goes up and our pay increases, we can't cover those aids in that federal budget anymore. And we can't eliminate those positions because we have to give services to our children. And so this budget amendment covers all of those things, but I was not able to pull it from within our current budget, so it will hit fund balance for $144 million. thousand nine forty eight and so if you look at the second page the bottom with this budget amendment our unassigned fund balance will go to twelve point six million any questions on twenty five entertain a motion to approve I make a motion to approve motion by Ms. Nettles

Second. Second by Ms. Dowell. All those in favor by aye. Aye.

Chair votes aye. 141-2026-26. This is our summer school funding. So this is the state funding that comes to us every year around April or May. And it will be what we use to run transportation and to run summer school for any K-8 student that wants to attend summer school. So our revenue for summer school funding is $436,223. And you can see that we're paying for teachers, aides, nurses, some materials, a person at each school to act as principal in case there's issues. Because we'll have them split between the middle school and an elementary school. And then, um, custodian and then transportation for those kids and then any kind of food supplies we might need for summer school. So this is new, new funding revenue, um, that we're bringing in from the state. And it's already, this grant has already been approved by the state based on this budget I'm presenting you.

So, so they're sending us enough money to cover our summer.

This'll be plenty enough to cover. We usually don't spend the entire amount of summer school.

You said if they wanted to attend, is that optional?

We kind of encourage, but we can't make them. I see. And so we try to encourage as many children as we need to. And especially try to hit those ones that are in that third and fourth grade that need the extra. Gotcha. Yeah.

Make a motion to approve.

Number 26. Second. Second by Ms. Dow. All those in favor, aye. Aye. 141-2026-27. This is for six weapon detection systems for the high school. Say again. Six of them? Six.

Okay. So this won't cover all of our doors. This will cover some. I don't want to talk about everything. Can't really talk about more than that. But this is weapon detection system for the high school. Okay. And we don't have the funds in our budget, so this will cover. This will come from fund balance. So if you look at the bottom of the page, our fund balance will go to $12.5 million.

Motion to approve 27. Motion. Second. Second by Ms. Jones. All those in favor by aye.

Aye. I hate that we have to have that.

Sorry. We do. 141, 20, 26, 28. This is for renovation to our football stadium at Cardinal. So this is the entrance. I know that if you think about it right now, it's that little building that's sitting there, that ticket booth. So this is to put a new entrance at our football stadium. We're just continuing to do capital things to improve our facilities. And so we have bid this out. And the board voted to move forward with this budget amendment. So we did not have this in our current budget. And so this money would come from our unassigned fund balance. And if you look at the bottom, our fund balance would go to 10.3 after this budget amendment.

Are you all, I mean, just rebuilding the whole thing for $2 million?

Do you want to come speak? Anybody want to come tell what we're doing?

That's more than a renovation. That sounds like a... all new all new things yeah i thought it was a renovation but please please share

This actually includes, like she said, the entrance is ticket booths. Right now there is a small ticket booth. One of the problems that we run into is some of our large gangs not having able to be able to move people through to get those tickets sold, which is a safety issue because we do open up some tables and you don't need to have money sitting out on a table. It's just not smart. So one of the reasons is for the ticket booth. When we were doing this, We were looking at other problems that we have. It was to take care of some other problems. One of them is official locker rooms. So you need to have locker rooms for officials. The other is our visitors locker room, which we actually pulled that out because it was just unreasonable amount of money that they were asking to do that part. We think we can get away with it a little cheaper. The other thing is for track, cross country, soccer, getting their locker rooms back and changing the old concessions into locker rooms for those sports and building a new concession area in this new area. The other part is with these weapon detection systems, we're looking at putting these at the football field as well as Interest to the basketball games if we do that this would make you a safer area To for people to enter as well and going through those weapon detection systems So those are all the different things that we were actually looking at as we were we were pursuing this project All that's including this yes, okay And it would also create a facelift to the front of our stadium as well.

Do you have a lot of participants in the bid process?

We had six different participants. The day that we did the pre-bid, we had multiples, probably 12 to 20, but we actually had six, which was a very good number for us to have on bid participants.

And when do you anticipate doing this?

If everything continues, it would be actually starting after the last football game, and it would need to be finished before the graduation night.

Next year.

So you're looking at this next school year, so you're looking at probably, well, it depends. I don't want to say too much because our football team might do amazing, but possibly November, December through May would be the work.

So are you going to have to adjust for cost overages if a cost change? Are they going to have a cost change anywhere in this process?

I mean, there always could be. We do have a contingency fund in it as well. But, of course, there can always be a change order that could come up. But we're not anticipating. We hope that we don't have any, but it always can happen. But there is contingency funds in here if we do have a – change order that has to take place.

Who is the contractor? I guess I'd like to see a rendering. You feel like you'd be signing with?

The board voted in the other night for the project to go to Sains Construction.

I'm going to make a motion to approve.

Number 28, got a motion by Mr. Hirschman. I'll second. Second by Mr. Chambers. Any more discussions or questions? All those in favor by aye. Aye.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Marianna.

I only have one, 101, 20, 26, 25. The first page is where I'm taking the money from. of the amended budget process. And this has no effect on fund balance.

So it has no effect on fund flat out.

Reprogramming.

All right. Entertain a motion for Marianna's number 25.

I'll make a motion. I'll second it.

Motion by Mr. Hirschman, second by Mr. Brown. Any discussions or questions? All those in favor by aye. Aye.

The rest of the handouts are for later.

Okay. Well, yep. When we're going to be a new business and that'll be the insurance. That's the big package.

Could you pull your microphone a little closer please So the bid was sent to the paper, put on our website, and also if there was any requests, it was submitted to whoever requested it. The bid line for questions was April 23rd, and then the bid opening was on May 7th. We only had one bid that was submitted And the results of that bid, I have given you a brief outline of the cost. The cost is within 20 grand of the prior year. But the breakdown is listed there for all the different various insurance. Property, $226,079. Equipment, $11,143. And then you have the crime, $6,832, which includes computer equipment and equipment breakdown. Then we have cyber, $20,425. General liability, $55,828. Our $5 million umbrella, $64,109. Professional liability, $408,850. Auto and physical damage, $317,009. Workers' compensation, $279,647. And I will say our experience mod has dropped another four points, which is awesome. So that's a savings. it's at 1.19 we're almost at 1% which is great and then our ambulance service 125,084 total package $1,525,006 so our current agents public risk insurers which is laura michael laura excuse me on that horse for some reason laura young michael who's our agent broker and lester green mccord uh john mccord agent they are here if there's any questions i did include on the second page our deductibles and then the bid they presented is also included in that packet

But this is less than last year's?

It's within 20,000.

20,000, okay.

Are we up 20 or down?

It's 20,000 more. Yeah, that's what I thought, okay.

Yeah, right.

But you have to remember we have two new buildings coming online, and plus we increased our fleets.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Does this include the new animal control?

Yes. Okay.

And our health department? Right. Okay.

That's good.

And the new vehicles.

Yes, sir. I would say on behalf of us and Laura, the property values were increased.

I'm John McCord, Lester Green McCord, Atoma Insurance in Tallahoma.

Sorry. The property values were increased by about 6%. Your overall increase on the total premium is right at 1.3%. So it's not all rate. mostly rate decrease. So I just want to point that out.

Are they our current carrier? How do we then verify that these rates are in line with surrounding areas? If we only got the one bid, how do we do that? I mean, because obviously there's not competition, so how do we do that?

Well, dealing with the insurance all these years, it is complicated, and I feel like we've been able to hold our rates. We have, there are other things that we work on during the year going through county's county has a lot of pieces so just especially with all the the increases in our buildings and you know our we are at replacement cost not a tornado was to hit this building not as what the cost is now what it would cost to replace it new so that is one thing that's in consideration I mean, you can look at other things, but then you've got to look at what type of coverage it is. Things get left out. It may not be apples to apples. So I feel comfortable this is a good bid.

I guess what I'm saying is, how do we know that this is a good deal? I mean, does the insurer give us special credits or special consideration as a returning entity? For reinsuring or are there discounts to be had?

I wouldn't say not just on that. You've got to realize they're looking at the risk and they're looking at what they're covering. So travelers is the majority carrier. The work comps with key risk have been there for years. And before you've been in a pool that was self-insured, which gave you – some liability on your side because if the self-insurance fund doesn't have the money, then you've got to pay it. And so you're in a fully insured program now and have been for 12 years. So it's kind of like buying a car. You go out and you ask for three dealers to give you a car bid, and one shows up. I mean, you either buy the car or you don't. So I will tell you in my business, I've been doing this for a long time, The Travelers is one of the leading markets in municipality business. And the only other people that compete with them are pools. And the pools are having a very financial problem. And I'll tell you why. Inflation and catastrophic exposure to loss. I mean, I've been in Tullahoma and Manchester and this community my whole life other than going to college. We didn't have the storms that we're having in the last four or five years. And that's not just here. That's across this whole state. And so your rates aren't based on just your risk or your premiums will be a lot higher. They're spread. And Travelers is a huge market, and they know where the competition is. They know where they need to be, and they've got to price the product to be competitive, but they also have to know that they're in the marketplace. And so we're very comfortable with the products that we've got in place for the county. And like I say, they've been on the account. They know the account very well. The risk management that Laura and her team do with us and through Mariana, claims reviews and so forth, a lot of agencies don't, and providers don't even provide that. They just send you a report and let you figure it out on your own. So we're more than, we're in your backyard, we're right here. We have offices in Teloma and in Manchester, and we're going to be here. We're not somebody that's going to come in lowball and run off. And I don't think you'll find a stronger municipal policy carrier player in the marketplace than Travelers.

Does your agency write any other municipal or county entities?

We do. We do not go to counties, but we do. I've been writing the city of Tallahoma since 1983. We also wrote the city of Manchester for a number of years. There was a bid situation that got out of... I'll just say it was.

But we're the only county?

The only county. We typically wouldn't. You've got to realize you've got people like me that live in the counties that they operate and they're going. Now, I will tell you, Laura writes counties all over the state of Tennessee. And so an agent like us, we partner with a Laura or a pool and we write those accounts. That's what they're doing. So Laura will tell you most counties or most cities want to work through an agent in their community through her. not just her on her own. So she's right in business all over the state.

We've had minimal increases over the 10 years we have had this same situation with our insurance, the same type of layers that we've added. They've been minimal.

Okay. They come in and work with us on workman's comp and stuff too, don't they? They do.

We have quarterly meetings.

Training.

Yeah, we have quarterly meetings. We'll go over the claims and how best to work with those. We have some really great attorneys that work on our jail.

Yes.

We have several at the jail, and now I think we're only down to like four. active jail lawsuits, which is highly commendable for Jeff Thompson and Gina who handle those and employee disputes and those types of things. So we've been very pleased with those results. You know, Travelers doesn't just settle. They will take... Go to court. Yes, they will go to court and fight them.

They fight.

And so the attorneys that are out there, they know that they're not, we're just not gonna go ahead and just hand over money because somebody filed a lawsuit. It will be taken to court.

I would say nobody in the private sector that would have a premium of over a million dollars saw only a $20,000 increase.

A lot of carriers, they're generalists.

And Travelers is a generalist. But Travelers has departments. So they have a municipal department. And all those teams, all they do is work on municipal business. That's it. They don't work on shoe stores and factories. And then they have other. They'll have a construction division. So Travers is big enough where a lot of carriers and pools they play, they only play in that little small space, and they try to play in other places they're not familiar with. So just from an experience standpoint, you can't beat some of their teams. You just can't. I mean, they're dedicated. They don't have a claims handler, for example, handling a jail claim. that is also handling that tornado loss. They just don't do that. So they specialize, which is bringing expertise to you, which also in the long run helps hold down your cost. So, yeah.

Any questions? Okay, entertain a motion to approve it. I'll make a motion to approve it. Got a motion by Mr. Brown. I'll second. Second by Mr. Chambers. Any more discussion?

all in favor how do we how do we pay this just one check for 1.5 million or installments or quarterly quarterly and that includes everything that's total cost with the agents and commission and all things everything's included okay thank you and and you did say like this is

covered at today's cost. Like if this building were hit by a tornado, it would be rebuilt. Replacement cost. Yeah, today. Okay. That is a huge difference. That's a big, that's a big. When you would take it out, depreciate it. Exactly. Okay.

Please.

Okay.

Excuse me. I just want to clarify that. So, yes, there's two ways you write basically most 90% of the time. You either write on a replacement cost basis or an actual cash value basis, which is cost new less depreciation. Okay. So it doesn't mean unlimited value.

You still got to buy the limit. Okay. Yes. But it would be enough to replace this building. It would not be the Taj Mahal built back here. It would be this building.

That's why I mentioned to you, we evaluate the property values of all the structures annually, and that's why I said the property values were adjusted about 6%, but your premium only went up.

1.3 on everything where your property would have been so actually your property rate probably had a little decrease in it okay all right now back to the vote all in favor by aye aye okay any opposed all right all right mary we're done with that one all right mr marchesoni and he is on page 15 of your book thank you all for your explanations under what 15 right here county trustee thank you ma'am

Just a minute.

What page are we on? Page 15.

Okay.

Okay. Okay.

John Marchesoni, Coffey County Trustee.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Tonight I want to present the budget for the Trustee's Office. I'll turn this budget in in March.

How many of you have already seen it?

Okay, so do you need this?

I'm not sure you have all this but what I'm talking about tonight is office needs for the trustees office and number one is going to be employee compensation two is going to be equipment

Our server is several years old. We need to replace it. We have shelving that we need for the tax rolls. And then the workstations need to be updated. So I'll start with employee compensation. If we look on the second page, you can see that our tax relief applications, we processed over 1,200 tax relief applications this last year. That's a tremendous amount of service to the community. And then if we look on the next page, we're looking at our collection rate. We're currently at 96% this month. We're at 96% collection rate. So over $38 million, we've collected $36.7 million. And there's four girls that work in that office Amy Godwin, Shelby Glennon, Lisa Bentley, and Karen Johnson. The next page shows all the way back to 2021. So if you want to look at consistency within the workforce and what they do, again, each year you're looking at 95, 96% collection rate. So these ladies are doing their job, but not only are they doing their job, they're exceeding productivity requirements. That's what makes the money flow when we have those collections in. One thing I'm very proud of, if you look on the next page, you're gonna see delinquent tax collection on a summer campaign. That campaign last year raised $446,000. Yeah, over $446,000 and money that was just sitting on the table. Again, those four ladies did that job. They did the work.

So what did you do?

They made the phone calls.

I'll get to that in just a minute. Just asking.

They made the phone calls, and the things that are intangible is there's a tremendous amount of address corrections. Worked directly with the property assessor's office in getting those address corrections done. or address corrections made. And you might think, well, that's not important. It's just an address correction. It's terribly important. Postage is now 75, 80 cents a letter. So when they're making those corrections, we're not having the same cost next year for postage. Postage has gone through the roof. So again, we're obtaining email addresses. They're doing the address corrections. I can't put a figure on how much money they're saving in doing that, but again, they're meeting and exceeding productivity. In the budget, I'm asking for a 12% increase in their compensation. I think that's fair. I think it's fair in what they've done in their productivity. I think if you look at the record since 2021, they've been consistent. For a long time, the county has had a problem with paying employees a fair wage. I don't think as a commissioner, I know all of you want to make the best decisions for the county. I don't think you want to go back to 1%, 2%, and 3%. I think we need to bring our employees up to a desired level of compensation and take care of our employees. I don't want to get into what other departments have gotten into. What word am I looking for? Employee turnover. I don't want to get into turnover. I can't do that in my office. It's just impossible to do turnover in the office. So again, I ask you to consider the 12% of the compensation. so that we can retain these employees and pay them for the job that they're doing. The next page you'll see a diagram, it's an office diagram. A few minutes ago I talked about tax relief and the office, I was elected in 2014, there's been no upgrades in that office for the taxpayer. Now the reason I'm proposing this is We're looking at taking the counter and making it an L counter, if you will. If you see the diagram, there's an L counter. And what that does, it provides privacy to those that are completing tax relief and tax freeze applications. There's a lot of privacy involved in those applications, and we want to try to do our best to protect that privacy. So by expanding the workstations, you reach two goals. Number one, privacy for the taxpayer. And number two, you're going to have more efficiency for the worker behind the counter. How many of you have been in the office? I'm sure everybody came in and paid their taxes this year. But this way, as you can see, when you come into the office, there's a single bar all the way across. It's close quarters for everyone. This would allow us to provide better service

John, let me interrupt.

Terry.

Capital Outlet has already approved this a long time ago to be built.

Okay. But the equipment that goes with this, we budgeted $10,764. What kind of equipment? The workstations, computer monitors, power strips, office calculators, and then... Y'all don't have office calculators right now? They're four years old and they let it stick on them.

You know how old my calculator is? 15 years old. Still works like a dream. Okay.

I mean, you might have a different brand than John. I doubt that.

We have approved that rebuilding that office in there already. So this is, okay. So, I mean, I don't know why you're bringing this in front of us again.

I just want to make sure you understand what we're doing here.

Well, the equipment, that's, we included that. You sent me a...

I'm 10,000 764 on the workstations on the

The other 10,000 or 12,000, that's going to be the server, the replacement server.

Is that the stuff that you sent me, though?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, so it's in the budget right here. I did include that. Yeah, we already got that in the budget. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something else. Yeah, the office remodels.

We're on the same page. We're on the same page. The only thing I haven't listed is – The roller station, the roller racks, the racks that hold the tax records, that's like $4,500. Any questions?

Are you finished? I've got to, if you're finished. Sure. I see the page where the each month amount comes in.

October 4 million, November 6 million.

That's the amount of taxes that come in each month when people pay.

You're looking at 2025?

Yeah. Yeah, 4 million. That's a cumulative amount. Each month is what?

Oh, so then November, that's only 2 million, which makes it 6 million total. Right. I've just got a question for you. Have you thought about some kind of incentive if people pay the first month their taxes because and the reason it would bring more people into pay, which would put more money into the bank to draw more interest?

Some counties allow like a certain percentage off the property tax. If it's paid before the end of October, the finance director would probably have to calculate what advantage that would be. At this point, we have probably a third of the population pays in October, a third in December, and then a third in February. So I'm not sure that... A discount on the property taxes would offset the cost on that because once in October, once we have these dollars in October, we're investing these dollars for interest. So I'd like to get as much as I – I don't mean to sound greedy, but I'd like to get as much as I could for October, November, and December.

Well, that's what I'm saying. If you put an incentive to knock the taxes down just a little bit, it would give the incentive to me to pay my taxes in October, so I'd get a small break, which would bring more money into the county.

Again, we'd probably need the finance director to calculate that because... You don't understand what I'm saying?

No, that won't bring more money into the county.

Well, it brings it in faster. Well, that's what I'm saying. Bring faster.

You have to look at the difference between the interest revenue versus the discount that you get.

Yeah, and that's something the full commission will need to vote on.

Yes, sir.

I'm just not sure.

You had a bad server. We did okay that bad server for you. We had a SQL server. SQL server is the least. But it was getting old. Yes, we did that first.

Yes, we did that.

Okay, we're good.

Mr. Chairman, that SQL server will transfer over to the new server.

Yes, sir.

We did include the roller. Yes, ma'am. That is in there.

That's under furniture and fixtures? Yes. Okay. So that's included.

Can you tell us a range of what your employees are paid? A range, not by employee, but a range.

35 to 49. You have four people? Yes, sir.

And if you got the 12%, what would that do just?

12% yet. What I'm looking at is 12% is around $16,000. Okay, that's all we're looking at $16,000. Again, the summer campaign. They pulled over 400 and look this again $464,000 that was sitting on the table. Okay. That's just part of the equation. The other part was what I mentioned the intangibles as far as the address corrections. So there's a ton of money. There's more than $16,000 saved just on postage. I'd be wanting to lay down money on that. But this is something that they're doing without supervision, without me cracking the whip every day. They're doing this on their own.

They're very dedicated.

They're very loyal. I don't want to lose them. And I'm asking for 12%. $16,000 is... That's not even as much, what was the insurance premium? 20,000? These are our employees. These are the people that work for us. These are the people we need to retain.

Anybody else, questions?

I got a comment for John or a question. You remember in the 2024-2025 budget cycle, you have one employee retire and you operated with three employees for about three months. Have you ever considered that maybe one position could be seasonal?

Could you come and spend the day with me?

Just to answer the question, have you considered it?

No, and I would not consider that. I mean, it's just that would be impossible.

Well, it happened. Well, it happened. You operated with three employees for three months. Right, right. And why could that not happen every year? Because it was obviously an off-season. And the three employees did not get paid any overtime. They did the work of the office for three months.

They didn't get paid the overtime because there wasn't any overtime. Again, it goes back to productivity and efficiency in what they're doing. They're very skilled. They're very talented. And again, they need to be paid for what they're doing. I've had the same amount of employees since 2014. A lot of offices have added additional employees in that period of time. And collections haven't slowed down for $38 million this year.

My point is, and I brought it up that year, that money that three months the money that was not spent on the fourth employee could be dispersed to the others i requested that and it was not approved well the letter of agreement prevented that it was just tca prevented that well but if you if you set it up your uh employee cycle i feel like you could do better for the ones that work 12 months It's a possibility. I just wanted to hear you address it. Okay. Because it happened. And I felt like maybe that would be a way of getting you where you need to be on three of them.

Why can't we get where we need to be on four of them?

Because we've got how many employees in the county?

Okay. Well, you know, last year, I commend you on what you did. Last year, you addressed the problem with the first responders. I commend you on what you did. My people didn't get that.

Well, I got a question, too, in John's defense. Okay. since dennis brought that up if he can get by with three with one being out i mean can't we cut down on the county commissioners because we've got three missing tonight and still get the same job done and a lot of times in the commission meetings we've got people missing so can we cut down the county commissioners i think we could do the job at nine instead of 18. out here too

okay any more questions thank you sir I got a question how do you say since there's not any more questions how do you say do we have a motion to approve it right well the whole budget will be approved yeah okay yeah the whole budget that's what we're talking about tonight is how we're gonna get to the end of this thing I can't approve yours and not approve the sheriff's, EMA, and everybody. We just had people present them. And then we go through and look and see what we can afford.

Okay.

I don't think we've approved anybody's.

No. Okay. All right. Making sure.

No, it's the whole package. I could be first.

No, you can't.

Thank you so much.

I'd like to ask one other question. Do you have a training program? This has nothing to do with your budget, but when you have people come in, do you have a training program for them? Absolutely.

We have a checklist before we hire anybody during the interview. There's a checklist that we follow.

Okay.

And then Karen Johnson has set up a descriptive manual to follow. Thank you, Doc. That's a good question.

Thank you. Is it our hands-on training process? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay.

We've got state sponsors a tax relief program training in July, so the girls are going to be going to that. I'm going to stay at the office. To answer your question, Mr. Hirschman, I'll be at the office by myself that day, and they'll be at a training session in Dunlap, Tennessee. Thank you for that. Any other questions?

Thank you for that.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, Ms. Toney. And she is on budget page eight. She's on eight? Eight.

I just got a couple remarks, and then I'm going to go over some figures. Our whole economy is based on private ownership of real property. The registers are the holders of the real property system. We validate the ownership and are the gatekeepers. If there is not accurate record system, then system does not work. The Registrar's Office must maintain confidence of the citizens by the office's accuracy. We cannot lose. Fair staff compensation is essential for maintaining the integrity of our county's property and legal records. Investing in my team ensures we retain experienced employees, prevents costly training delays, guarantees our citizens receive the accurate, efficient service they expect. The staff processes complex legal documents, liens, plats, Each requires years of specialized on the job training to perform the duties in the register's office. Protect the county's chain of title daily. Our office interacts with bankers, title companies, attorneys, real estate brokers, private industries here locally and across the United States. All expect our county register's office to provide services above average in detail. Currently, each day, I receive compliments on how our office is performing. I'd like to comment that despite the fluctuating real estate market, the office's workload remains steady and growing. My staff and I are the public-facing engine keeping county commerce moving smoothly. My budget request is an investment in county efficiency rather than an expense. And back to that statement about the market. I think that you'll be surprised to know that I Tally'd up again today And so this is like July 1st 25 No, July 1st 26 to July to May what is the date the 28th and I've still got a whole month to go. And right now, we are like 2,000 more documents ahead. We are in like 3,000 more in DP fees. We are going from 2.6 million to over 3 million by the time I get in, everything from the end of next month. So 3 million has been some of our biggest years. We've had a couple of those years. But I was surprised when I got a hold of this the other week and started tallying. I didn't expect that the figures would go up that much. I knew that we'd been busy and steady. And anytime you want to print out of our totals, I can give those to you anytime, email them to you. I'm going to pass this out real quick.

And that would be a couple other things I'm going to talk about.

Thank you. In there, I think one of the first things behind My remarks is a sheet that I think Mariana had provided to you from me, but all that was happening. I wasn't really on top of the game then. But on that line 106. It changed to 183 310. I marked through, I think everybody's got it in red. And that changed, we had one other line down at 399, went from 6,000 to 7,500 on the data processing. Okay, and then over, when we get into this, back to three months without an employee. We have experienced a little bit more than that. I did interviews after January, I lost someone to a financial institution, more pay, better opportunity. And I had had her trained, so it had taken, it takes about two years, and I will say I'm not comfortable really until after the third year. And that's with them coming in the door with some experience. So that one hurt, but we were happy for her, she's just down the road. So that was one that had full coverage family. So that hasn't had to be paid since January. and her benefits haven't had to be paid. That's all just sitting there. Now, why didn't I hire? I interviewed like six different people and nobody was a match. I just can't waste the time because I'm busy. When we're down one, I'm more busy. But what I say is that I waited until after this election and now I'm back to going to decide, am I gonna plug that fourth person, or am I gonna ask for more money for my part-timer, or am I just gonna hire another part-timer? I'm trying to look at all the options. I don't wanna be overstaffed, and we run all day long. Today was like a circus. John came in and out of there a couple times today. And over into this, when I get into the line 307 and 320 and these description blocks, a lot of those explanations were for last year. We had a lot of things that went on last year with getting some big equipment, which, by the way, is going... People are... cannot believe they'll call in from wherever and they cannot see the survey and we pull it up we can't see it well within five minutes we've got it to them and they can see it perfectly and they're like how are y'all doing this um so the equipment is really really good and there's a lot going on on redoing books and I've got all that going on in the background uh with uh Paul Shelton So we don't need any equipment. And the only other thing I can think of that may happen with some furniture and stuff is I may need some, I am gonna have to have more filing cabinets and a couple of chairs. But I ask you to deeply consider what I've asked to pay them. They work circles around, everything that they do. And the knowledge level, if Jeremy Bell was here, he would tell you, is the same as in his law office, that the attorneys, the title companies, the bankers in this community, and the real estate brokers, there's not a time that they call us and we don't get them helped. There's not a time that we don't catch something that lands in front of us that will go, oh, no, we better call mccord telling um there's a lot to it and if we were not doing our job or my employees were relaxed or whatever the complaints may be the whole community would hear about it and that's why i tried to express during the campaign the attorneys and the title companies and the bankers lenders and the real estate brokers They're loud if they don't get something right. If something's gonna be wrong, they're gonna tell it. So I encourage every one of the commissioners to talk to some of those folks. Ask them, how is the Registrar's Office performing? When you get that feedback, you'll understand why I stand before you saying, let's keep our employees. To go backwards is really risky. They can make mistakes. You know, when I have a new one in, I've got to go behind it every day, all day, and the next day looking at every document to make sure nobody missed anything. And there's not a lot of time for that because I'm waiting on people too. So please consider and know that we're working hard and we're making our county proud.

Is it okay if I ask a question? Yes, ma'am.

Okay, I can be real exact it takes the winner is having Someone that's had some real estate knowledge. That's been in around a real estate world that may have also with that had banking and and knows the deeds of trust, knows liens, knows how you have notice of completions. They know the documents. And then the other definitely is in a law office. And I'll tell you, we will come to the point that I'll be back before you saying, hey, You know, if we don't give this one a raise, I'm gonna lose them to a law office because they're having trouble. Their staff members are aging and my staff is a perfect match for them, okay? So please understand that we don't wanna go that direction because it would be very serious in the registrar's office with what we handle each day. And anytime, come visit us, come look. Did that help you? Yes, thank you.

And what is your range of employees?

Salaries from what to what? Like $38,000 to my chief deputy is at like $52,000. And there's a lot of responsibility in that role too.

Thank you. Anybody questions?

I didn't get where she changed this in red. Okay. No, I'm just saying I'm good. Okay.

I got it. Just for FYI regarding Donna's office does all the work, all of her employees do all the work that generates $962,000 from Coffey County property owners in realty transfer taxes. And those taxes that are collected in her office go straight to the state of Tennessee. We don't get to keep $1 of that. Myself and most every other county mayor in the state has lobbied the legislature to at least let us keep 50% of it. But it seems ridiculous. That is a tax that is being paid. Nobody comes in Donna's office that's not a Coffey County property owner. They're either selling their property or they're buying property. But it's Coffey County property. And the state levies this tax. And in 2025, there was a little over $962,000 left this county from county property owners that her office did all the work to collect. And it just, you know, it really goes against everybody's. It sticks in my craw. I'll put it that way. because it's paid by a Coffey County resident. So I just want everybody to know that, because a lot of people don't realize it.

Mayor, I appreciate that, because when I'm looking just at the end of May, we're at almost $2.7 million, and that's mortgage tax and transfer tax. But guess what? They made some kind of sweet deal that me and Heather Dahlborn had to chase down a rabbit hole to figure out why, where was all this money going? And they made a deal at the table where the judges needed funds to their retirement. And I don't, you know, I believe in telling you the way it is, and so I'm telling you. And so these people that were at that table that day decided that they were going to give 2.6% of the 5% of that money, we were retaining 5% up until 08. And now we retain 2.4, that's the county. Now we have, since I came on board, and Rutherford County, we have been asking and asking and asking, and it took us years to figure all this out. But our, what do you call it, our lobbyist has done all he can or the registers, they don't want to give money to the registers. Well, they wouldn't be giving it to us and be coming to your county budget. So I encourage the commissioners and the mayors, and I know Dennis has worked on it, that's who's going to have to be able to get that back. And where it's going now, I don't know. It's not going to the retirement plan now. So there's a lot of money that comes in our office. There's a lot of money I balance out each month in that little office. I totally missed it. And, you know, what we do get to keep is the DP fees. That's $2 a doc. Well, that equates, right now it's probably going to be about $19,000. Well, that $19,000 is what we buy into at the end of the year to pay a line item back for our contractor that handles all of our software. So, you know, it We may get $2,000 or $3,000 extra in that account building up, but that's it.

And I do have an announcement that will be coming in the near future.

I'm waiting to make sure all the dots are going to be, and I'm waiting to hear from the other counties exactly. I need more word from the other counties how it's going. But we are set to, our software provider is going to implement AI is it will allow us to not peck at that keyboard. When it reads the documents, it's gonna key in that language. And then when my technician goes back in, they're looking at them to make sure it matched up. They're not having to keystroke everything. And then it gets verified after that. But it's going to... help speed up the process a little bit. I'd like to hear what they have to say. That's another reason I haven't hired somebody, because it could affect that. But there's some big things coming, there's lots. And then in our office, you can come in there and say, you can go in there and ask it to pull all the properties that Don Tony has owned. I mean, you'll be able to ask some questions about our county. It's amazing.

Can you repeat every bit of that in a microphone for the people at home? She just said a lot of good stuff, but I know nobody at home heard it.

Thank you for the information. Donna, is there a way to increase that $2 fee?

No, that's a set fee. been some talk and I can as a register there there is a dollar fee out there that I haven't took on that is for archiving and preservation but our local submitters another dollar you know I just think you know For every document that they send in, it'll be another dollar. And right now they fuss about that $2. So, you know, if we as a county decide that, hey, you know, we are concerned about our preservation and our records that we want to – think this over and think about the goods and the bads and me poll the other counties that have done it, then it might be best for the county to do that. Because all this work that we're doing in preservation is not free. It's expensive. And it's going to be more and more of it.

All right, Marianna went down to seven, discussed the vote. She took off on me. When she gets back, we'll start seeing where we're at.

There she is.

Okay, we're down to the good, the bad, the ugly.

So in that packet I handed out earlier, the second page, y'all had asked me to look at salary increases, 2%. And so the cost to increase just 2% is $329,841. That does include payroll taxes. And then the second category, yes, we'll get 3%. And that's $494,760. You got it. It's in the budget amendment I gave you. I flipped them all together. Okay.

Now I'm with you.

Okay, second page.

So it's 2% on the general fund.

It's $329,841. And 3% is $494,762. And then the next category is solid waste sanitation and then the ambulance fund. Let's see what the 2 and 3%. Third page is a snapshot of the fund balance. which amounted to 357,849. And then you can see where I put this 2% salary increase, what that would cost. And then removing what was in the budget that was over the two. So that brings the budget deficit down to the 1.9 million. and the fund balance to $9,126,841. The page after that is the 3%, the effect of the 3%.

Is this going off the budget from last year?

So some of the increases in furniture and stuff are in this?

It's from this year. Okay.

So everything that's been proposed except for we cut the salary down to 2%. Right. But everything else that they asked for is in here. Anything added?

The vehicles and all that.

And all the non-profit stuff. Okay.

Did we put the fire alarm money in? Did that come up?

The rural capital projects? Yes. I've got it in there.

Okay. All right, so if the budget went this year like it is with a 2% increase, we would be 1.926 short.

Right. Okay.

What did we start at? We were 1.7 last year. Right about that.

No, it was two.

1.2.

Yeah. Two point something.

It was more than that. When it came here, but I think it ended up when we voted on it to 1.2.

At the very end. Yes. That isn't where we started, but no.

Right, we started where you're talking about.

Yeah, we started with that.

Mr. Chairman, can I ask a question? Yes, ma'am.

I'm just thinking about what you're having to do right there.

Could you turn the microphone so people can hear the answer? I'm sorry.

Yes, I've asked to ask a question. Um, I don't remember exactly what the sheriff's response was, but you know, we've had the department, um, several years be around a million plus over. And I ask, um, are we looking at that? That that's a lot of money to hold in one department and be over and needing it for payroll. and knowing that it's set there all that time. That has stuck out in my mind since his presentation. And I remembered it from a couple years each year. It's been like that. So in my office, I'd always been taught that you budget your budget for what you're going to use. I'm not sitting with $30,000, $50,000 over in my budget i'm down to the wire so i ask you to check you know can you check with all these other offices that makes me wonder the different departments are they holding money that can be used now and and put to use thank you

So that 357 from the sheriff's office, does that get taken out of next year's budget? It will be lowered? We've already reduced that for next year. Okay.

He had the same figure as this year, but this year was high because he was not fully staffed.

That's his problem. He still can't find enough figures.

They agreed to lower that amount.

okay so we pulled not as much overtime and fully staffed okay but when you're not when you're not using that employee that money gets moved over to you correct I mean if you if you're not fully staffed those positions are not filled and that money comes back to the general fund but then you spend it on overtime for deputies who are having to stay out longer to cover okay So we think we're going to be about 600,000 short in June up at the top.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. But it could be less than that.

Yeah, it could be.

Okay.

That's approximately what we had last year. Wasn't that close to where we were last year, right?

Did the light just turn on? Mm-hmm. That's what I see.

estimated expenditures 32 million so we're 1.9 short on revenues that was the estimate for 573 I know you're conservative conservative conservative

I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room. Each year we're sitting here looking how we're going to cover 600. We're pulling 600-something thousand out of our fund balance. Is that correct, Marianna? That's correct. And we're paying reoccurring costs with that. We cannot continue to keep doing that. We've not gone up on taxes and I don't, I don't want to go up on taxes no more than anybody else does, but everybody keeps coming in here and they want more and more and more and more and more, and we are not getting any more in revenue in, and we're spending more revenue out. So if we do not, and this is not a popular subject, and I know this time of the year, everybody's gotten their reevaluations on their, on their property taxes. and a lot of people do not understand that because there's gonna be a different rate that you're gonna be paying out on your property taxes also. But I gave each one of you a paper that tells you what our penny value is and we're i do not want us to see i do not want to see coffee county do what everybody else is doing right now around us everybody else is doing 25 24 38 wilson county just did a 30 almost 38 cents uh rutherford county is doing 20 something and and it's there's no end to them they're they're i mean they're doing this every year and we have not done anything in Our last tax increase was 2015, which was 25 point something cents. Oh, I put that on there, didn't I? Yeah. Well, that's actually 25 cents.

Yeah, 25 and a half.

And a half, almost. Okay.

That was done in 2015.

You know, I do not want Coffey County, they're trying to pass a law right now to stop these counties from raising taxes so high as far as a big jump every year. They're encouraging us now to do small increments, which is, I'm talking about two or three cents. I know that don't sound like a lot, and it's not really a lot. Two and three cents is not a lot, but you can see what the value of a penny is on this paper.

Can you explain what two cents would be to sell like a $250,000 property? How much extra it would increase it?

Let me do this. I'm going to tell you what a nickel would change my value at. We'd change it probably $12 to $14.

On how much value of property?

Your issue on $250,000, a little over that. Okay. But your issue is our tax rate is going to come down. Okay? Right now our tax rate is 2.31. Is that right? Is that what that? I believe that's what it is. I got it. You got it. Talk off. Come here. Your tax rate right now is 2.33, so that's $2.33 and a tenth of a penny.

Per $100, you're 25% of your assessed value.

You have to take your value, your 25% of that value, and that's how you come up with an assessed value, and our new tax rate, It's going to be less than that. I cannot say what that is. I've got approximately what it is.

Right. And your penny value is going to go up.

And our penny value is going to go up from what I gave you on the sheet. But I just gave you what it is right now, okay? I'm trying to stop this bleeding that we are doing and also try to look for our future. Because we've got to look out for not just what's going on now, for something down the road that we can't even take care of. And that's why the state is recommending that we do small increments from now on. We don't like doing a tax increase, but two cents is not very much. You're talking about dollars. It's not as bad as it seems like it is now. I know if you're talking to y'all, if somebody owns a million dollars worth of property, yes, you're going to get.

They still wouldn't be but $48.

Yeah. See, that's what I'm saying. We have got to look out for our future. And right now, we're not doing that. We're spending our money that we've been having on our fund balance, and we're depleting that, and we're not putting nothing back. So I'm trying to figure out a way to stop this. And I recommended on that paper, but now that I see these new numbers, I don't know that I can recommend the five. I would almost say the six would be a better recommendation for me. But that's just me saying that.

The rate we're at now, a penny, is $167,800. Yeah, I used 167,795.

And if we went to six cents, just six cents, you're looking at picking up a million dollars for the budget. That will cover the 600 every time we're bleeding every year, plus it'll put us somewhere we have our fund balance gets built back where it was supposed to be at. That's just where I'm at. I mean, I know I threw this at you, surprise, but we're gonna talk about this, folks. I mean, we cannot continue going down this road that we're going down.

If you did the six cents once the penny, once it's determined how much the penny is, and it's gonna increase, you're gonna be generating more than a million dollars. Yes, we will. You would be able to pick up building maintenance. You would be able to pick up the new cars. you would be adding to the fund balance for a while at six or even five cents five cents may even generate a million dollars by the time we get to the end of what a penny's worth because the in 2000 when we built the jail a penny was right at a hundred thousand that's correct so when it went up it's gone up sixty said the revenue side of it has gone up sixty seven thousand dollars because of the value of the homes. The state of Tennessee came in and valued our homes. It's not Coffey County going out and telling you how much your house is worth. It's the state of Tennessee coming in and appraising our houses here. And they've decided that our houses are worth quite a bit. Some of them are. But you said that these houses behind here, their value went down some.

that's what our property assessor said this the subdivision right behind sea cap come in at a lower lower rate appraisal that's why everybody won't see exactly the same tax bill Some people might actually, that's if the uniform rate stayed the same. You know, we have to be revenue neutral by TCA requirements. Right now, the uniform rate, everybody that owns property in Tullahoma, Manchester, and Coffee Counter Rural, the uniform rate is $2.05. rounded up $2.06. The rural rate's $2.33. Manchester has to pay a little bit more because they send their kids to our high school. You have Tullahoma. I don't have their property tax rate in front of me. It's not in our book.

It's 2.58.

It's how much?

Theirs is the uniform rate, the first one.

The Telehoma City's real estate tax, property tax, their city tax is how much? They pay the uniform rate. I already said that. What do they add on top of it? That's what I'm getting at. They pay a lot more than the rural rate. They were in a blast year, didn't they? They were in a blast year. So it's gonna be interesting when it's all said and done. We have no idea what the revenue neutral uniform rate is going to be yet. Is that correct? That's correct. We gotta know what that is so you know what a penny's gonna raise.

But I don't think you'll know that until August or September, will you? No.

I don't know.

I don't know.

We will know before then. Okay.

Once they get all the appeals process is what I was told. Once the appeal process is over.

Well, this resolution that we passed has to state the uniform rate for the budget. Yes. Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

On being out here working on all these campaign signs, I was blown away at all the construction, especially in Tallahoma. Townhouses after townhouses. Are we as a county, I used to do it at one of the jobs I worked at. We kept a list of all that was fixing to come in. You know, how many building permits have went out? How many notices of completions have come in for the cities and for the county? That's, you know, that's a lot of tax money there. That's all I could think of. Everywhere I went, they were on both corners.

There's tremendous growth. The growth, you know, is outside of keeping it neutral.

That's one reason why I want to keep this as low as possible. And not get crazy. I don't want to sit here and come in and do like a Wilson County and say, we're raising your property tax up 38 cents.

38 cents.

You talk about I'll be done what I'm doing.

But a tax increase, it's got to come. Yes, it does. You have no choice.

Everything's going up. And it's going up for our citizens, too, though.

I mean, I think we did a good job holding our taxes down as low as we kept them for all this time without having to tax them. We almost talked about it last year a little bit. But this reoccurring cost is killing us. And it's not changing. I don't see it changing. I see it going to be maybe more. And yes, I know construction's up. Some, it'll probably go up more, and we try to figure those things too, but that's why I only stayed in this range, because I don't see it needing to go any higher than that. And it doesn't say we have to wait. If we see we're in good shape, if we do a small one and we see we're in good shape next year, then we'll stay right there. I am not saying we've got to sit there and hit another two or three cents. Like the state's saying we need to be doing. But I'm saying this needs to be done now to fix our problems. Because we have a problem right now and we're bleeding out money.

Well, if we don't do it, the county employees are the ones suffering because The cost of living, I've got the recent increases here. The inflation rate's up 2.4%. Grocery costs, 2.5. Electricity is up 4.2. Gasoline over 30%. Insurance is 9%. So the employees deserve a pay raise, a good pay raise. I don't think we should be holding back, trying to not do an increase because it's gotta happen. There's only people suffering county employees.

Oh, they contribute to the airport though. We do. Manchester, Manchester Fire Department for mutual aid.

That's why they both come in.

I mean, it went up from 15,000 to 35,000. For who?

Manchester City.

Manchester City. And then the airport authority went from 16 to 25. And then. think it's a great great program but the soapbox derby is asking for twenty five thousand dollars that's a lot and then the conference center we're giving them fifteen thousand i don't even know why we would still have that for what fifteen thousand for them i don't know for what

Is that come out of tourism taxes? Okay, so that's not out of the general fund. That's coming out of...

Okay.

But the Manchester thing hasn't been addressed.

But the Manchester is mutual aid for them to come to the interstate with the jobs of life and stuff, correct? Yes, it is. That's 420-something square miles.

Yeah. We... And I appreciate what the, I mean, yes is an expensive yes. But I do like it that they're coming out and joining in the fight on the fire. Or anything. And that's what that helped cover.

Before this budget gets approved, I've already had more than one request for tourism funding. the tele homo recreation department are trying to expand their softball baseball fields for tournaments and that does bring in individuals from out of county that stay in motels so it's in tourism dollars make no mistake by resolution can only be spent on tourism okay we can't give raises to somebody with tourism dollars. It's dedicated funds, and I feel like we will be funding, help fund some improvements for the Manchester Recreation Department and Tullahoma's Recreation Department. We've been pretty slack on, we've been shifting too many tourism. It has to be spent on tourism or economic development. one or the other, and we shifted a whole bunch to the other side. I think tourism needs to get their fair share, and there's areas to spend it on. So that'll be coming up in our next meeting, I feel like, here.

And if that happens, it's also going to generate more revenue because if they do do softball and baseball tournaments, you have more and more people spending the night in our hotels, which goes back into the revenue source that you're funding it with. Yeah, benefit schools.

I honestly feel like we need to wait on the assessor's total real property assessed value to set the certified rate. That's the only way you're gonna know the exact revenue number. You may not have to do a penny. We may not. There's, as it's been pointed out this evening, there's been a lot of new construction. There's a lot of, there was, the year prior to, everybody talks about our zoning amendment that changed parcel sizes in A1. The year prior to that, we had 195, new building permits the year since that was initiated we had 185 six new construction permits less so it we did not affect the growth in the rural areas with that uh resolution So that's worth pointing out. We got a lot of new properties coming online. I feel like you just got to wait on Alyssa to tell us what that number is.

Do we have an estimated time when she's going to come up with that? I don't. I don't.

I know she's getting hammered because it's a reassessment.

Do you happen to know offhand when she might be close?

They're close. Okay.

By next week. I don't know.

Okay. That's close.

I mean, I don't have a problem waiting.

Then let's just.

Because I'd rather have that information too. I really would.

Because we already went through the draft.

Our assessment would be more meaningful if we hang on.

You want to. But before we do that, so next meeting, can I see them? You got a two and a three on here?

Okay, yeah, I can do that.

Okay, yeah. Double two, double four.

I'm just kidding.

I got you. Just double the two. I can write it out. No, you don't have to.

Got you.

He can figure it out.

I got it figured out already. And see where we are.

And see where we are. That was actually simple math.

You could have told me to do the simple math.

Well, you don't need to calculate it.

All right. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Memphis. My nephew is getting married. I will be out of town. I have to go to work for the state of Tennessee in Sevierville next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Do you all want to do a meeting or do you all want to wait until the next Tuesday? I thought we had a meeting.

We already have one set. Okay. We're already set.

Okay. Yes.

We did it for Monday.

But if we're not going to do anything until we get that tax information.

We may have it by then.

So schedule a meeting for y'all on the 2nd? We have one already scheduled for the 4th. The 4th? Okay. The 1st and the 4th. At 4.30. Okay.

So we're going to push capital outlay meeting very quickly as far as this. On the 1st. Cancel the 1st and do it on the 4th. Okay.

No, that isn't what I understood. Tim, would you repeat? Are we going to meet on the first and the fourth?

Do you think she'll have that information by Monday? Probably not.

We could leave this scheduled and then cancel it if we don't get it. Okay.

June the 4th. June the 4th at 4 o'clock. No, no, no, no, no. June the 4th at 5 o'clock. 4.30. No, it's at 4.30.

4.30.

June the 4th at 4.30.

4.30. Are you set for June the 4th or 5 o'clock?

Because the capitol island is meeting, right?

Yeah, but I'm going to try to push that and get it done quickly.

I need to know because you have to set it up to record and all that.

I've got mine set for 4 o'clock.

No, but we have to have the streaming and all that set.

Set up.

Yeah, so that the, whatever that does.

I mean, I'm okay if we want to do it at five o'clock, but I mean, I think we could be done.

Five, and that way we'll be in it.

Let's just leave it at 4.30. If it's ready, we'll be here anyway.

Capital I lay four.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Let's keep this at 430.

Okay, Ms. Dow says keep it at 430 on June the 4th.

And that'll prompt them to get finished and come home. If we have to wait, we can. We're here. All right, June the 4th at 430.

For a budget meeting. For a budget meeting. Capital I lay at four.

Yeah, we'll have two back-to-back.

Now, we don't think we're going to have any paperwork. I don't think that she'll have it done by then, and there's no sense in meeting it. if we can't do anything. And if it doesn't work out for Thursday, we'll cancel it. If she doesn't have the paperwork of what a penny is going to be worked to us, we don't need to meet because we're wasting time. Well, we're wasting their money. Agreed.

I don't want to do that either. When are you going to be back?

uh thursday morning of what day the fourth okay well you're good yeah well i'll i'll we'll know before that yes we'll know by then and that way we'll either be on or off on the fourth now if she's not ready by the fourth if if if if she's not ready by the fourth of june the ninth of june is our first june commission meeting full commission yes yes We need to be done for that, folks.

We have two full commission meetings in June.

Yeah, we have one the 9th and the 23rd. But I'd love to save that money.

We don't have any scheduled for August or September. Okay.

Well, that means the budget's late then. That's a problem.

No, it won't. Forget it approved the second meeting in June.

Yeah. That's not going to happen.

No.

But we have meetings in July.

It has to be done. Why don't we meet on the 6th at 4? If need be. Yeah, if need be. Did you all hear that?

That's a Saturday.

No, no, no. June the 9th, full commission, 6 o'clock.

Oh, okay.

We could meet at 4, if need be, on the 9th. Yes.

Okay, so if June the 4th falls out, then we'll meet on June the 9th at 4 o'clock.

Yes.

Right before the county commission meeting. That'll give us two hours.

Why not the 8th when we have a work session anyway? That'd be better.

Everybody doesn't come to that.

A lot of people need to be coming to that.

Everybody does need to.

I bet you all you guys will be there.

So, okay, being at 4 o'clock, it may be on the 9th. Got it. On the 9th?

Is everybody good with that?

Okay. I agree.

All right, so we're going to do the 4th at 4.30. If the paperwork is not completed and we don't know what a penny is worth, we're going to cancel that meeting and move it to June the 9th at 4 o'clock. Now, by then, she ought to have that. Okay, she should, but who knows? I mean, anything can happen. All right, that's a plan. everybody good yes well she's been run over and I know I feel sorry for her because there's people that have misunderstood all about this and blaming her and she had nothing to do with it So whenever she gets done, she gets done because she's taking care of her customers. And that's our people. All right. Anybody else make a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Second. Mr. Roger. All those in favor, aye.

Aye. Aye.

Everybody in here has got a million dollars worth of property, and I wouldn't complain about $45,000.