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The Fiscal Year 2025 City Budget passed in a third and final reading at the Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s second June meeting, totaling to $37,227,852.

Alderman Daniel Berry made an amendment to add back in the non-profit and tourism funding that he had previously motioned for to be put into contingency since he said the board had to cancel study sessions regarding the two issues. Alderman Derick Mann seconded his motion and the motion passed unanimously.

The 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 FY24-25 $43,595,194 budget at its June meeting after formalizing its estimates for state and local funding sources.

According to TCS Finance Director Hank Jordan, the budget has been reviewed by the school district’s finance committee since January and gave its recommendation for approval. He added 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 57% of the budget. Other funding sources included public county taxes, which made up a little over 15% of the school’s budget, the local sales tax, counting for 14% of the budget, and the city’s allocation, which comes from the local property tax, which counts for a little over 20% of the school’s budget. Also highlighted in the school’s budget were onetime expenses of a new maintenance vehicle and a new bus, increases in federal funding, specifically ESSER funding, funding for additional positions and a 2% cost of living adjustment to all salaries.

Finance Director Sue Wilson also reminded the board to make an amendment to accept all the changes to the budget as well.

“This third reading had the school system budget, as well as the smaller budgets that were not presented at the first or second readings,” said Wilson.

Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Mathis asked why the school budget hadn’t been added, and Wilson explained that the school board had not met to pass their budget until the previous week.

Mayor Ray Knowis made an amending motion complying with Wilson’s request, and Berry seconded the motion. It passed unanimously.

According to the final draft budget document, the FY25 budget includes $3,000,123 for “general government” appropriations, $5,191,636 for the police department, $3,597,578 for the fire department, $3,690,998 for the public works department, $2,943,595 for the parks and recreation department, $13,937,891 for Tullahoma City Schools, $300,000 for the Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation, $156,000 for the Tullahoma Municipal Airport, $562,847 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 $30,481,353 in local tax revenues, $4,544,573 in “intergovernmental” revenues, $217,227 worth of revenue from licenses and permits, $524,000 from fees and fines, another $716,000 in miscellaneous revenue and $744,699 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. The FY2025 budget represents a 2.3% increase from the FY2024 budget.

Then, the original motion was put forward. Berry made the motion and Mann seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Kyle Murphy contributed to this story.