KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The city of Tullahoma is looking at a $34 million budget for the coming fiscal year, including no increase in the property tax rate.

In its May 22 meeting, the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved the first reading of the city budget, which sits at $34,021,877, a 3.5% increase over the current fiscal year budget. Per state law, municipal budget ordinances require passage on three readings. The city board will vote two more times to approve the budget, giving time to make room for any amendments to its appropriations on the second and third readings. Those readings will take place June 12 and June 26. Prior to the first reading of the budget, BoMA held three study sessions to provide an opportunity for the board members, as well as the general public, to gain more familiarity with the budget process and to be able to discuss current departmental programs, accomplishments, upcoming goals and needs with staff and administration.

According to the first draft budget document, the FY23 budget includes $2,508,685 for “general government” appropriations, $4,405,578 for the police department, $3,475,252 for the fire department, $4,055,127 for the public works department, $2,473,120 for the parks and recreation department, $12,627,412 for Tullahoma City Schools, $300,000 for the Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation, $156,000 for the Tullahoma Municipal Airport, $576,452 for other agencies, including tourism and cultural organizations and community service organizations, and another $1,246,456 allocated for debt service.

The draft budget also anticipates $28,272,145 in local tax revenues, $4,082,895 in “intergovernmental” revenues, $190,287 worth of revenue from licenses and permits, $469,650 from fees and fines, another $365,000 in miscellaneous revenue and a $641,900 pull from reserves.

The first draft of budget does not list any planned capital projects that are anticipated to continue in FY24. The list will presented to the board in the second reading of the budget.

The property tax rate stays the same to $1.9532 per $100 of assessed value for all real and personal property for both Franklin County and Coffee County residents of Tullahoma.

Finance Director Sue Wilson gave a brief PowerPoint presentation to BoMA to go over the details of what was in the budget and to answer questions. According to Wilson, there hasn’t been a property tax increase for the city of Tullahoma for at least 10 years, noting that the sales tax has been carrying the costs and programs. She said the sales tax revenues are 12% above FY22 figures, thanks to the new retailers that opened in FY23.

According to Ordinance No. 1594 for the first reading of the budget, the priorities for the budget include providing Student Resource Officers (SROs) at all schools and to increase paving. It was noted that this budget draft provides the same programs and services as the FY23 budget, and while it does utilize $641,000 in reserves to support the increased annual paving amount of $650,000, it did not add new personnel. The ordinance also added that Gov. Bill Lee has indicated that he will be providing some form of grant funding for SRO’s, with $50,000 having been provided in the budget draft for continued over-time and part-time SRO services through the efforts of the current officers until the grant program is established.

Before the vote to pass the first reading of the budget, Alderman Jenna Amacher opened discussion and said with the budget being as crunched as it was this year, she noticed that they were spending a couple hundred thousand dollars for nonprofits. Amacher said while she believes in the missions of the nonprofits, the organizations have been asking for more money in their requests each year, noting that some asked for more for either special expenditures or operations. She added that she had an easier time with the requests if it’s a special expenditure that they potential couldn’t otherwise afford and are working towards it; however, but if they were supporting operations then the organizations are no longer a nonprofit; they’re a city funded entity.

“I’m not sure if you guys want to do it this year but I think that we should be working towards weening some of these nonprofits off or down because the list cannot continue to grow,” Amacher said.

After asking the board for their opinion, Alderman Daniel Berry agreed with Amacher and said, while it’s too late for this year’s budget, they should look into and revamp the process for requests from nonprofits. He briefly referred to his time sitting on the panel for United Way and how they select other nonprofits for funding.

“I do hope that this board, immediately after the budget, looks at revamping on how that’s done so that next year we have enough time for people to go through the process and we can reward money that way,” Berry said.