It’s budget season.

Unfortunately, Bugs and Daffy were nowhere to be seen to see Monday’s budget introductions at the Hamblen County Committees meeting at the Hamblen County Courthouse.

After the regular committees meeting, recently elected County Mayor Chris Cutshaw introduced the FY 2027 budget for Hamblen County.

“Here we go,” Cutshaw stated as he came to the podium. “We’ve had a busy year. A lot was accomplished this year, there’s no doubt. There is a lot more to do.

“I am presenting a budget to you that is unedited from each department, from each elected official minus two things. We are matching the City (of Morristown), most likely an E-911 request and for the Morristown-Hamblen Library,” Cutshaw said. “The county is likely to match the City’s portion of library funding.”

Gov. Bill Lee vetoed a resolution that would have added $4.22 to each phone bill to go to E-9-1-1 to offset expenses.

In updates from FY 26, renovation work is ongoing at the new Hamblen County Health Department complex at Oak Tree Plaza on Buffalo Trail, the former site of a Food City store. The complex will also include the Hamblen County Agriculture Extension Office and is set for completion on June 30. Cutshaw said that contractors are ahead of schedule.

The Hamblen County Justice Center is now open and was completed and opened in March. New positions were added in Circuit Court, General Sessions Court, courtroom security, maintenance, data processing and finance departments.

“There’s no doubt that the county has grown,” he said. “There’s needs everywhere we’ve looked.” Vehicles have been purchased for the Property Assessor, Cherokee Park, the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office and the Sanitation Department.

All wheel tax revenue has been placed in a Highway Capital Projects Fund to the tune of $3.3 million with 13.5 miles of roadway paved in FY 25-26.

All Corrections Officers received a 10% cost of living raise, with other employees receiving a 7% raise. Cutshaw said this was largely due to a salary study completed last year.

All 23 School Resource Officer positions were funded for the entire year. Eighteen officers were funded through grants and five were funded with county- only money.

“School safety is very important to this body,” Cutshaw said.

FY 2027 Budget

The budget is divided into major categories.

General Fund 101 is the Major Operating Fund of County Government.

Sanitation Fund 116 is used for the Bulk Waste and Garbage Pick-Up.

Highway Fund 131 pertains to Highway Maintenance, Mowing and Operations.

Highway Capital Project Fund 176 is for Paving, Striping and Guardrails along Hamblen County Roads.

Debt Service 151 is the Debt for the County and Schools

Special Debt Service 154 is the Debt for the Hamblen County Landfill.

Drug Control Fund 122 pertains to operations related to drug enforcement and control, maintained by the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office.

Revenues for the county comes from local revenue, including Property Taxes, Sales Tax and County Fee Offices, such as the County Clerk when auto tag renewals are due. Other revenues come from State Grants, Federal Grants through State Agencies and Transfers from other funds.

Sales Taxes

In 2024-25, sales tax revenues were $24 million “Our county receives about $4.4 million in sales tax annually,” Cutshaw said. “Around $2.2 million goes to the school system.”

Cutshaw said that the county is maintaining its model of underestimating revenues as close as possible and overestimating expenses for budgetary purposes.

“We want to balance our budget at the end,” Cutshaw said.

Property Taxes

The inside Morristown rate is $1.31 cents per $100 of assessed property value, according to Cutshaw. Outside of Morristown, the rate is $1.47 per $100 of assessed property. This compares favorably to the rates in surrounding counties. Jefferson County has a $1.49 rate; Cocke County has a $1.4993 rate; Knox County has a $1.554 rate; Greene County has a $1.65 rate; Washington a $1.71 rate; Hancock County a $2.22 rate; Claiborne County a $2.37 rate; Hawkins County a $2.5546 rate and Unicoi County a $2.6105 rate.

“We’re grateful that we’re able to maintain that,” Cutshaw said. “That is due to partnerships we have throughout our county and city, including our industrial parks and how they carry a lot of our burden as far as our tax base.

Broken down, 77 cents goes to the general fund; 28 cents goes to schools; 26 cents goes to General Debt Service for all residents. Sixteen cents goes to sanitation for county residents only.

Property Tax Revenue is at an estimated $36 million as FY 26 has not been completed yet. The same amount of revenue is being estimated for next year, Cutshaw said.

General Fund Budget Recap

Hamblen County entered FY 25-26 with a deficit of $1.246 million relating to capital items.

“We do expect this $1.2 million to come closer to balance by the end of the year,” Cutshaw said.

Cutshaw estimated that the county will end the fiscal year closer to a balanced budget due to higher fees collected from fee offices; increased revenue from grants (Health Department, Food Insecurity, Broadband Ready and SAMHSA); Jail expenses were less than expected due to the delayed opening of the justice center; and estimated salary expenses were higher than actual because of positions that were vacant part of the year.

It was estimated that the property tax increase would generate $6.7 million in funds in FY 24-25, but the estimate was short by $300,000 or 1.6%. There was $20 million in revenues from the property tax increase.

FY 26-27 Budget

Cutshaw estimated an additional $1 million in anticipated revenue over FY 25-26. About half of this is from increases in fees collected by the County Trustee, Register of Deeds, Circuit Court, County Clerk, Chancery Court, General Sessions and the Sheriff’s Office.

Additional revenue may come from the state through TVA payments, prisoner boarding fees and grant revenue. Another increase is anticipated to come through Federal Grants, such as SAMHSA (Drug Court Expansion Grant).

“When we did our budget meetings with each elected county government official, we took their requests unedited,” Cutshaw said. “As we go into our budget process, it is your (Commissioners’) job to check this out. We took unedited requests. Most are very warranted.”

At the same time, it’s estimated that there will be an additional $2 million in expenses over FY 25-26.

Additional expenses may come from personnel salary and benefit costs including positions added that were not in last year’s budget, such as maintenance, property assessor, General Sessions, Finance and Data Processing; an increased TCRS rate and changes to employee health coverage.

Also, increased costs in maintenance agreements due to inflation and additions of systems inside the new Justice Center and Health Department buildings; increased utility costs for new county properties; increased costs for inmate medical and food expenses; increased custodial supply cots; increased liability and worker’s comp insurance (8% over last year) and due to new properties; A $174,000 increase of three new Sheriff’s Office vehicles; additional funding from local nonprofit agencies and additional capital improvements for the courthouse, such as the roof, air conditioning and paving.

General Fund

According to Cutshaw, the FY 2627 budget contains a roughly $2 million budgets. This includes departmental budgets and nonprofit needs as requested; Sixty-seven percent of the budget is salaries and benefits; this deficit includes capital expenses for vehicles, roofing repairs and air conditioning costs.

This does not include a cost-of-living adjustment for county employees.

Sanitation Fund 116

As presented, the FY 26-27 budget contains a $263,000 deficit, which includes $680K for purchase of a new garbage and brush truck, but doesn’t include a COLA for county employees.

“This county is incurring difficulty in keeping employees,” Cutshaw said. “Everywhere I go, I hear it from others, it’s not just us. The sanitation department is coming to us needing CDLlicensed drivers. Anything that weighs more than 26,000 pounds requires drivers with CDL licenses. We’re having trouble keeping CDL drivers to keep trucks on the road.”

Cutshaw said that the new trucks for sanitation do not need CDL drivers, but allows sanitation employees to keep routes going.

Highway Fund 131

As presented, the FY 26-27 budget carries a $535,000 deficit, which includes $495,000 for capital purchases and improvements. Expenses will more than likely be less than budgeted due to vacant positions. This does not include a cost-of-living adjustment for county employees.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Cutshaw said. “We’re just starting to present facts. As this body moves forward, there is work to be done. It will be up to this body to decide which way to go on this. We do expect some increases in our expenses.”

General Debt Service 151

The proposed budget contains a $200,000 deficit. Principal and interest repayments will be slightly higher than last fiscal year. There is no anticipation of new debt to be added and this is anticipated with debt service projection.

Highway Capital Projects Fund 176

This includes all wheel tax revenue of $3.3 million. The investment income budgeted was moved to help maintain maintenance of effort in the highway fund. This also includes money for striping, hot mix, crushed stone and guardrails, which are all used for road prepping and maintenance.

Although wheel tax revenue is received across the entire year, the projected balance as of June 30, 2027 will be roughly $5 million to use on paving and prep for county roads.

Upcoming budget meetings will be on Saturday, May 16 at 9 a.m. with a Budget Committee Workshop to include the School Department, Nonprofits and County offices. Additional meetings are on Monday, June 1 at 5 p.m. for open items and budget updates with recommendation of the proposed budget on Thursday, June 4 at 5 p.m.

The budget is set to be adopted at the regular June County Commission meeting June 25 at 5 p.m.

All meetings will be held in the Large Courtroom of the Hamblen County Courthouse. Other meetings will be held as needed.