The Tennessee General Assembly this year passed a law that prohibits a county commission from cutting the budget of a county mayor’s office to an amount less than the previous year’s budget unless the mayor agrees to the cuts.
Specific expenses that cannot be cut from the mayor’s office’s budget are office personnel salaries and benefits, office supplies, communication expenses, postal charges, professional development training, and membership dues and fees.
Ten counties out of 95 in 2022 set mayoral office personnel budgets at an amount lower than the previous fiscal year — and therefore could have been affected had the new law been in place.
Hamilton County Commission Chair Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, on Wednesday asked Lee Brouner, the county’s chief financial officer, for clarification on which personnel are considered part of the county mayor’s budget.
“Whether that should include chief of staff or chief operating officers, I will need to look at it,” Brouner said of the legislation, which went into effect this month.