The Greeneville City Council voted 3-1 Tuesday to approve a combination of using fund balance and implementing a 4-cent property tax increase to adopt a balanced $35 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Council members asked Finance Director Lora Young to keep looking for budget cuts in an effort to prevent the property tax increase before the budget is considered on second and final reading, tentatively scheduled for June 16.
“You’ve done a good job of paring things back,” Council Member Ginny Kidwell told Young, “but I still think before you raise taxes, you really need to take a close look at how you tighten your budget.”
Prior to the vote, Kidwell said she would be voting against the budget as presented, and she hoped she could support the budget on second reading.
In response to Kidwell’s remarks, Young noted the budget has been cut by nearly $500,000 already, These cuts include salaries for two vacant positions: the assistant public works director and a planning position.
Also, every town department has made cuts to their budgets, for example, the police department has cut almost $37,000, Young said.
“We’ve done as much as we can,” Young said, “I’ll be glad to go back and take a look at it again.”
She said additional cuts could require the elimination of services.
“I just don’t think we have the revenue to make it up,” she said.
Two major issues for this budget, according to Young, are the end of federal funds related to COVID-19 and the state mandated “maintenance of effort” funding for Greeneville City Schools, which requires an additional allocation of nearly $250,000.
Through maintenance of effort, local government is required to provide at least the same amount of school funding from year to year.
She also mentioned cuts to grant funding the town typically uses for revenue.
“I’m a taxpayer, too, and I can appreciate very much where you’re coming from. I don’t like to do it. I don’t want to do it,” she said of the property tax increase. “I just don’t know where else to go.”
Council Member Tim Teague suggested two options to help increase revenue and take the burden away from property owners — fees for garbage collection and a city wheel tax.
Mayor Cal Doty recommended looking at the town’s fees for services to generate additional revenue.
“It’s not going to fix everything, but every little bit helps,” he said.
How to calculate
Young presented an example of how a 4-cent property increase would affect residential property owners.
If a property has an assessed value of $350,000, 25% of that value would be $87,500, so the tax per $100 would be $875. The new tax rate with the 4-cent increase would be $1.7071, and that amount multiplied by $875 would be $1,494 for the year.
Eighty-five percent of the town’ revenue comes from taxes, including 37% from property taxes and 34% from local option sales tax, according to a pie chart presented by Young.
The amount taken from fund balance would be $1,833,050 to help balance the budget, Young said.
Council Member Tim Ward, former police chief, said nobody likes a tax increase, but, “The price of things goes up. That’s the bottom line.”
Ward commended Young and her staff for their work on the budget.
“They make every effort to save this town money,” he said. “They do a phenomenal job of pinching pennies.”
Council Member Matt Hensley recommended looking for ways to reduce “administrative bloat” in the budget. He gave one example, duplication of marketing services with the town and the Greene County Partnership.
The budget includes step increases for town employees, but no cost-of-living pay raise. Young said the average step increase is 2.5%.
The budget does not include funding for request from non-profit agencies
Following approval, Mayor Doty asked for applause for Young, Interim City Manager Cathy Osborne, and department directors for their work on the budget.
Airport Authority
In other business, the council voted 3-1 two approve two recommended appointments to the Greeneville Municipal Airport Authority.
Hensley expressed concern about the process to fill the positions, citing a potential conflict of interest and noting the council had requested interviews of the applicants, which was not done.
Paul McAfee, chairman of the airport authority, recommended in April the reappointment of Jimmy Collins and the appointment of John Curran to fill an unexpired term.
Hensley said some of the applicants were omitted from the scoring process, and some of the applicants are more qualified than those who were recommended.
The council also approved a resolution authorizing $350,000 of bond proceeds from the Depot Street project for other capital projects.
The other projects are $255,000 for turn lanes at East Andrew Johnson Highway and Rufe Taylor Road and $95,000 for improvements to the tennis center on Hal Henard Road.
Young noted the tennis court project was previously approved by the council.
She explained that the town could receive a finding on its financial audit if the proceeds are not used for other capital projects in a timely manner.
The council approved an ordinance on second and final reading amending the Zoning Ordinance to authorize “Neighborhood Gathering Venue” as a use in the B-1 district and “Places of Amusement and Assembly” in the B-2 district.
After discussion in its May 19 meeting, portions of the amendment related to bed and breakfast use were removed.
The approved changes were requested by Cristy and Scott Thomas, owners of The Blue 102 historic home on Doughty Avenue.
Public comment
The council also approved an amendment to the policy on public comments at council meetings.
The change allows comments related to general town topics, not just the specific topics on the meeting agenda.
The policy still includes time limits of three minutes per speaker and up to 20 minutes total from all speakers combine in one meeting.
During public comment Tuesday, the council heard from Mary Louise Watts, the town’s first female alderman, who expressed concern about line-of-sight issues because of overgrown vegetation on private property near a stop sign on Royal Street.
She invited the council members to go look at the intersection.
The council also approved:
the allocation of up to $50,000 for adding improvements to the Eagle’s Rest Pocket Parkthe rezoning, on second and final reading, of 1201 Tusculum Blvd. from R-1 (low-density residential) to B-4 (arterial business)$6,531 for a 50% matching grant to purchase of seven ballistic vests and carriers for the police department; andthe final budget amendment for the 2025-26 budget.
The meeting also included the reading of a joint proclamation recognizing Gifts for Kids’ Christmas in July Month in Greeneville and Greene County and encouraging citizens to participate by donating and volunteering.