Council members raise church-state questions during budget hearings

Chattanooga City Council members this morning raised church-state questions when an official with the nonprofit Front Porch Alliance requested city funding during a morning of budget hearings.

“I think the churches should take this role, and it just shouldn’t be government involved,” Councilman Leamon Pierce said. “Basically, I’ve just never been supportive of funding this particular organization.”

But Beth Trussell, executive director of the Front Porch Alliance, said after her presentation that all city funding is spent for building supplies for the World Changers program, in which volunteer workers fix up area homes.

“We can’t spend it any other way,” Ms. Trussell said.

The organization is requesting $60,000 from the city for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, a $28,000 increase from what the agency got for the current fiscal year, according to documents.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.