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Bradley mayor warns about tight budget next year

By: Randall Higgins
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Gary Davis

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The local government’s budget-writing season is over with no property tax increase, but there already are warnings about next year.

Last week’s Bradley County Commission votes ended a long but smooth budget process, County Mayor D. Gary Davis said.

The $111 million budget includes raises for county employees, two additional school resource officers and an extra person each in the offices of the property assessor, Geographic Information System and Circuit Court clerk.

“While the state has laid off employees, we are actually adding some. We were able to do it with the same budget and the same tax rate,” Mr. Davis said.

But he cautioned about the next budget year.

“If the sales tax revenue continues as it is today, fuel prices continue as they are today ... we will have budget problems this time next year,” Mr. Davis said.

He urged fuel conservation in each department.

“We won’t be able to add employees next year. You can almost count on it,” Mr. Davis said. “Whether we have a cost of living (raise), or whatever you want to call it, next year for employees is very questionable at this point.”

But he told commissioners they can hold their heads high and brag on the budget for 2008-09.

Finance Committee Chairman Ed Elkins also cautioned “there are some risks” in budget year 2009-10.

“We could very well be in for some tough days ahead of us,” Mr. Elkins said.

He cautioned department heads that the finance committee may look very closely at requests to amend budgets in the coming months.

Mr. Elkins also told finance committee members to think about ways to set “trigger points” at which conservation measures rise to a higher level if the price of fuel increases.

The committee plans to send a letter to county government department heads warning them to keep a close watch on their budgets.

Commissioner Jim Smith and Mr. Elkins said conservation applies across the board, including more use of electronic documents, since the cost of office paper also is rising.

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