Coleman: County's financial standing at risk
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Following a thoughtful and thorough discussion of the county’s proposed general budget, the Williamson County’s five-member budget committee on Monday voted to support the 2011-2012 proposed budget of just over $386 million. To help fund it, it also voted 4-1 to send to the county commission a proposal to raise the county’s property tax rate of $2.09 to $2.31 per $100 of assessed value.

“We never start a budget year planning to raise taxes,” said 6^th district commissioner and committee member Arlene Cooke of Brentwood. “I don’t want to do this but I realize it has to be done.”

Commissioner Tommy Little, who represents the fifth district, is not on the committee but attended the afternoon session. He noted that last year the commission was warned that the bandages it has previously applied to avoid a tax increase could not last.

In the past two years, the county has “done every trick in the book” to make things work but now “we just have to pay the piper,” he said.

Williamson County Schools superintendent Dr. Mike Looney updated the committee on last week’s action by the school board which cut its 2011-12 budget by the requested $2.3 million.

Chaired by Commissioner Lew Green of Brentwood, the committee heard county finance director David Coleman suggest that if the county didn’t raise its tax rate to cover its budget and instead dipped into its general fund balance, it could risk losing its valuable AAA bond rating.

Fourth District Commissioner Kathy Danner asked the committee how hard it is to get a Moody’s AAA rating back once it is lost.

County Mayor Rogers Anderson answered that he “would not be willing” to risk the county’s financial stability by losing the rating, adding “it’s not good, prudent business sense to lower it.” An AAA bond rating means the county gets the most favorable rates on any money it borrows.

Losing the rating and then getting it back is “not an automatic thing,” Anderson continued.

Eleventh District rep and committee member Brandon Ryan of Franklin asked, “What if?

“What if we can’t talk to the county commission into a tax increase? What’s Plan B?” Bryan asked.

Anderson said it would take 13 votes out of 24 to go forward.  If the measure isn’t passed when the full commission meets on July 11, he said the committee will start at the top "and we will go through the budget line by line until you get a budget you can live with.”

The proposed budget and tax increase proposal will be discussed at a public hearing scheduled June 7.

Anderson noted that two important puzzle pieces that will influence the county’s final budget won’t be known until the state legislature acts on them, which should come before it adjourns next week. The first is the amount it will allow for 2011-2012 BEP (Basic Education Program) funding. Second, the state is considering mandating a 1.6 percent pay raise for all state employees and teachers. The raise would raise the proposed schools’ budget by $1.4 to $1.5 million and is currently unfunded. If passed, it would have to come out of the school system’s fund balance.

“If we don’t do it now, looking at next year, it’s going to be worse,” Green said of the tax increase.

Ryan offered that if the tax increase is passed, “We’re going to be sucking money right out of our pocketbooks right now. … It’s going to hurt people; it’s going to hurt me.”

The chairman answered with a question of his own. “Was it shortsighted on the commissioners’ part” to not act earlier to increase revenues? he asked.

“Probably so,” Green answered himself. “But the only choice we have now is to raise it to $2.31.”

The committee will hold a public hearing Tuesday, June 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Williamson County Administrative Complex, 1320 W. Main Street, in Franklin. The County Commission will make its final decision on the proposed 2011-2012 budget and set the tax rate at its regular meeting at 9 a.m. July 11, also at the administrative complex.