JASPER, Tenn. - Property taxes are about to go up in Jasper.
At Monday's regular monthly meeting of the Jasper Board of Mayor and Aldermen, city administrators voted unanimously to approve the next fiscal year's budget, which includes a 10-cent property tax increase, on first reading.
"The reason for that [increase] is we've done all we can do with what we have," Mayor Paul Evans said. "We're going to have to start replacing equipment."
He said the city is in need of replacement dump trucks, tractors, mowing equipment and a garbage truck.
Evans estimates that equipment could total at least $377,000.
"The board has cut and scratched and scraped, and we've done all we can do," he said.
For a $100,000 home in Jasper, the increase from 30 cents per $100 to 40 cents per $100 represents an additional $25 on a property owner's taxes next year.
Staff Photo by Dick Cook
Paul Evans is Mayor of Jasper, Tennessee.Alderman Paul West said the increase was necessary to get the needed equipment and that Jasper also will have to replace two of its "front line" fire engines that will "age out" in the next six years.
That cost was not included in the estimates for the other needed equipment, he said.
"Things go up [in price]," West said. "If you're going to continue in business, you've got to adjust your money accordingly to stay there."
The new budget does not include a pay increase for employees for the first time in years.
Evans said it's only the second time in the last 25 years that an employee pay increase was not included in the budget.
"It's hard when you're scraping the bottom of the barrel," he said. "We've been lucky over the years to be able to give them something."
Jasper's last property tax increase was about six years ago, when it went from 24 cents per $100 to 30 cents.
"Our property taxes are a heck of a lot lower than most towns our size," Alderman Steve Looney said.
The board will consider the budget for a second and final time at a special called meeting on June 29 at 5:30 p.m. CDT at the City Hall Annex.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryan lewis34@gmail.com.