Bradley County's 2014-15 budget approved

photo D. Gary Davis
photo Bradley County Commissioner Jeff Yarber.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Bradley County's proposed $33.7 million 2014-15 budget - which includes a 2 percent raise for full-time employees, a 1.6 increase in revenues and expenditures and no property tax increase - is now official.

On Monday, the Bradley County Commission voted 14-0 to approve the proposed budget expenditures, establish the fire tax levy and make appropriations for nonprofit charitable organizations.

Bradley County Commissioner Jeff Yarber, who holds a 5th District seat, cast the only opposing vote regarding the property tax levy, which passed 13-1.

"I'm opposing the tax levy because of recent reassessments of property in the 5th District," said Yarber after the meeting. "Property values have increased in the district, and that means an increase in their taxes."

The proposed growth of the fund balance to $5.9 million is a $1.5 million increase over the last year and represents an increase of 13 percent to 17 percent as expressed a percentage of the total budget, said Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis in prior discussion with the Bradley County Commission.

Vehicle expenses accounted for the largest increases in the departmental budgets, with the Bradley County Emergency Medical Services, the Justice Center and the Bradley County Sheriff's Office seeing the largest dollar increases, said Davis.

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Those departmental increases amounted to $121,878, $108,227, and $33,247, respectively, he said.

In recent years, vehicle expenditures have been handled through the county's capital budget instead of within department budgets "when the economy went sour," said Davis. The budget for 2014-15 is move toward reversing that, he said.

For the most part, departmental increases have been minimal and 14 departments actually decreased their expenses in the new budget, said Davis.

The Bradley County property tax rate remains at $1.8721 on each $100 of taxable property.

For each $1.8721 collected, the county general fund will receive 54.04 cents and general purpose funds for county and city schools will receive 88.13 cents.

The tax levy will also allocate 23.56 cents to general debt service, 13.20 cents to pike road, 5.22 cents to community development, 2.89 cents to the Cleveland Bradley Public Library and .17 cents to education capital projects.

The fire tax rates will also remain the same, which is .344 cents per $100 of taxable property in Fire District 2 (Rural) and 4212 cents on each $100 of taxable property for Fire District 1 (Fringe). Fire taxes are included in property tax notices.

However, recent redistricting will mean higher fire taxes for properties in the expanded Fire District 1.

The reclassification of those properties, which are located within five miles of Bradley County Fire & Rescue's paid stations, reflects the improved fire services those properties now receive through the addition of three new fire stations along the fringe of Cleveland city limits in July 2013, said Davis.

An estimated 3,000 parcels will be affected by the redistricting, said Stanley Thompson, assessor of property for Bradley County.

Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.

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