County Commission unanimously approves $679 million budget

Kirk Kelly, interim superintendent and Christy Jordan, assistant superintendent of finance present the school budget during the Hamilton County Commission meeting Tuesday.
Kirk Kelly, interim superintendent and Christy Jordan, assistant superintendent of finance present the school budget during the Hamilton County Commission meeting Tuesday.

UPDATE: The Hamilton County Commission this morning has unanimously approved a $679 million budget. The vote was 8-0 in favor, with one commissioner not present.

The Hamilton County Commission votes today on a $679 million budget for 2017.

Mayor Jim Coppinger's budget proposal amounts to a $14.3 million increase over last year and includes a 2.5 percent salary bump for county employees. It does not include a property tax increase and discretionary funds for county commissioners. The proposal marks the second year in a row that Coppinger has left out the special project money for commissioners.

Last year, six commissioners voted to take $900,000 out of the county's $90 million general fund balance to use as discretionary money.

The six commissioners - Chester Bankston, Tim Boyd, Randy Fairbanks, Jim Fields, Warren Mackey and Sabrena Smedley - did not publicly discuss the matter; they just voted to allocate money from what essentially serves as the county's savings.

Those same commissioners also overturned Coppinger's veto of the amended budget. Commissioners Gregory Beck, Joe Graham and Marty Haynes opposed the measure.

"We have limited funds and we're using them wisely," Graham said following a budget workshop earlier this month.

Commissions have held no public discussion concerning the absence of discretionary funds from the 2017 budget proposal, although Boyd attempted to seek his colleagues' opinions concerning discretionary fund policy by email. Bankston, who serves as the body's chairman, said he put a stop to the planned correspondence, citing potential Sunshine Law violations.

Last year, Bankston said it was "the right thing do" after the divided commission voted to withdraw nearly $1 million from the general fund balance.

"I have so many projects in my district that just don't get funded outside of discretionary spending," he said. "I have the largest district. I have 11 schools in my district and every one of them gets a part of that money."

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