East Ridge residents are one step closer to a balanced budget, 30 cent property tax increase, $5 solid waste fee increase and 2 percent hotel/motel tax increase after City Council members approved the new budget’s first reading Thursday.
Alterations still can be made until the July 7 second reading of the budget, but Mayor Brent Lambert doesn’t expect to see many changes in two weeks.
“There were no amendments offered,” he said. “We’ll probably have the same on July 7.”
But Councilman Jim Bethune, who voted against the first reading approval along with Councilman Denny Manning, said the rest of the council has been set on the current budget since Day 1.
“Everything was cut and dried at the first budget meeting,” Bethune said. “We were sitting there, Mr. [City Manager Tim] Gobble, myself and Mr. Manning didn’t have a clue. We thought we were going to sift through, line item by line item.”