Chattanooga Pulse

Editor’s Note: As happens every so often, the City Council voted to defer voting on the following ordinance after this issue had already gone to press.  But since it will come up again – and soon – it will still be relevant when they do get around to approving the city budget.

Here is one of the more interesting agenda items set to be discussed at the September 15 meeting of the Chattanooga City Council.

5. Ordinances – Final Reading:
j) An ordinance hereinafter also known as “the Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Budget Ordinance”, to provide revenue for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009, and ending June 30, 2010; appropriating same to the payment of expenses of the municipal government; fixing the rate of taxation on all taxable property in the City, and the time taxes and privileges are due, how they shall be paid, when they shall become delinquent; providing for interest and penalty on delinquent taxes and privileges; and to amend Chattanooga City Code, Part I, Chapter 2, Section 2-267, relative to paid leave for active-duty training.

As the old saying goes, better late than never.  More than two months past the start of the 2010 fiscal year, the city council finally will be able to vote on a budget.  The budget, presented to the council last week by Mayor Ron Littlefield, contained no tax increases but also made some deep—and in some cases, highly unpopular—cuts in city departments.

What is even more interesting is that the budget planners are having to work largely in the dark, as at the time the budget was being put together, no one was able to predict how the proposed annexation plans were going to play out.  Without being able to account for those areas—specifically how much is going to have to be spent to bring them into the city—even a budget as detailed as this one is in many ways a “best guesstimate”.

It will also be interesting to see how much Littlefield’s proposed budget resembles what the council ends up passing.  There are serious concerns about spending priorities, especially in regards to the police and fire departments, and several of the new council members have made it a priority to cut way back on what they see as unnecessary spending.

The Chattanooga City Council meets each Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the City Council Building at 1000 Lindsay St. For more information on the agendas, visit www.Chattanooga.gov/City_Council/110_Agenda.asp