Commission Passes Budget; Tax Levy Increases Slightly For Oneida SSD Residents

Huntsville, TN (2011-08-15) The Scott County Commission Monday night formally adopted the county’s 2011-2012 fiscal year budget and set the corresponding property tax levy to fund proposed expenditures. Despite previous reports of no tax increases, the levy on those residents inside the Oneida Special School District increased slightly over the year.

Budget Committee Chairman Willie Boyatt presented the 2011-2012 Fiscal Budget and Tax Levy resolutions Monday night, culminating months of work on the document. “I want to thank my fellow Committee members Ron Blevins and Gerry Garrett for their hard work this year. This has been a very difficult budget, and we had to make some very hard decisions,” Boyatt stated.

While the proposed budget included more than half a million dollars in cuts from last year’s appropriations, the committee also had to shift appropriates within the budget to avoid a property tax increase. As presented, the tax levy resolution reduced the County General Fund levy from $0.535 to $0.53, the Rural Debt Service from $0.325 to $0.32, and increased the General Purpose School levy from $0.81 to $0.82. Since residents inside the Oneida Special School District do not contribute to the Rural Debt fund, the changes effectively increased the burden on those taxpayers by one-half of one cent. The property tax rate outside the Special School District will remain at $2.22 per $100 of assessed value, while the rate within the SSD will go from $2.545 to $2.55. For comparison, the increase will raise the property taxes on a residential property assessed at $100,000 by $1.25 per year.

The increase apparently went unnoticed by most Commissioners, as no mention of the disparity from the 2010-2011 levy was made Monday night. In urging is passage, Boyatt and Blevins, who seconded the motion to adopt the proposed budget, assured fellow commissioners the rate was unchanged.

The budget and levy were passed by a 12-0 vote, with Commissioners Ernest Phillips and David “Blue” Day, both of whom were in attendance earlier in the night, leaving the meeting prior to the budget vote.

While the budget passed without much ado, several members of the South Scott Volunteer Fire Department and a couple of representatives from the Scott County Rescue Squad attended the meeting to express their displeasure with reductions in county funding of fire departments and the rescue squad in the proposed budget. In years past, the county had contributed $7,000 annually to each of the county’s nine fire departments, and $10,000 to the Scott County Rescue Squad. In the proposed budget, the county reduced its contribution to all departments and the squad by $2,000 each. Faced with dwindling revenues, mounting debt and a desire to avoid a tax increase, the county eliminated most of its support of local, regional and national charitable organizations, including contributions to the Scott County Relay for Life, Scott County Shrine, Scott County Youth League, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club and others. In the original proposal, all funding for fire departments and the rescue squad had also been eliminated. Recognizing the importance of the services provided by the departments, the county made cuts in other areas of its budget to provide $5,000 for each department.