KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The city officially adopted its $34 million budget Monday, after approving it on its third and final reading at the meeting of the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Per statute, budget ordinances require three readings before formal adoption is considered binding, giving city officials, nonprofit organization representatives and residents time to discuss what goes into the budget each year.

This final reading saw the inclusion of the Tullahoma City Schools budget, also required per statute. The Tullahoma City Schools Board of Education formally adopted its $42,296,090 budget at its June meeting after formalizing its estimates for state and local funding sources. According to TCS Finance Director Hank Jordan, the largest source of income for the school comes from the state department of education’s Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding plan, which makes up 58% of the budget. Other highlights of the school budget include an 8% increase over last year’s budget for sales tax revenue, with guidance from the city of Tullahoma to match their budget projection, a 6% cost of living adjustment to all salaries and extending classified pay schedule from a max of 15 years out to 20 years, funding for additional positions and the line item of building improvements at $1.2 million, which the majority of that will is rollover from the East Middle Schools HVAC project, which will not be finished this year per Jordan.

During the previous two readings, the topic for discussion for the board was in regards to funding school resource officers (SROs) in all Tullahoma City Schools, as well as other options to be able to accommodate other new expenditures that would be coming about this fiscal year. Part of the discussion was regarding the availability of Gov. Bill Lee’s grant program where schools could apply and receive funds to place a full-time, armed SRO at every Tennessee public school. A study session was held on June 19 where the board spent an hour discussing capital improvement programs and funding options for the SROs. According to a memo from Finance Director Sue Wilson, in addition to the school system’s budget, the budget ordinance had been updated to incorporate funding for seven new SROs as Lee had indicated that grant funding, in the amount of $75,000 per officer, will be available through the Department of Safety and Homeland Security. Per the memo, the budget proposed the interim use of $525,000 in reserves to provide a balanced budget prior to the grant award.

According to the final draft budget document, the FY24 budget includes $2,508,685 for “general government” appropriations, $4,964,257 for the police department, $3,466,983 for the fire department, $4,055,127 for the public works department, $2,461,582 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 budget also anticipates $28,282,145 in local tax revenues, $4,087,895 in “intergovernmental” revenues, $190,287 worth of revenue from licenses and permits, $469,650 from fees and fines, another $396,949 in miscellaneous revenue and $1,166,900 pull from reserves.

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. With the addition of SROs, the FY2024 budget represents a 5.2% increase from the FY2023 budget.

With no further discussion, BoMA passed the city budget as amended on the third and final reading unanimously.