Oak Ridge proposes no-tax-increase budget

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson, center, presents budget highlights to City Council during a Monday night meeting. Also pictured, from left, are Oak Ridge City Clerk Diana Stanley, City Attorney Ken Krushenski (partially obscured), and Finance Director Janice McGinnis.

Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson has proposed a budget for the next fiscal year that does not include a property tax rate increase.

However, the budget, which is similar to last year’s, does include a 1.5 percent “pay adjustment” for municipal employees.

“This is not a rocket science budget,” Watson said. “This is just a matter of what we can afford.”

The property tax rate would stay at $2.39 per $100 of assessed value in the fiscal year that begins July 1 if City Council approves the budget on first and second reading later this month.

The city would give the schools the same amount as last year, or roughly $14.6 million.

“We just cannot afford some of the impacts that we are seeing at this time,” Watson said.

He said there has been a decline in sales tax revenues and a potential increase in the city’s portion of debt payments on the Oak Ridge High School renovation project.

General fund municipal expenditures in Watson’s proposed budget would total about $19.5 million.

The budget calls for some departmental restructurings—the deputy city manager position will not be filled, for example—and it plans for major capital projects, including a possible $500,000 contribution for Woodland Elementary School repairs and $250,000 for Roane State Community College. The gift to RSCC, recently ranked the top community college in Tennessee, will help the college expand its overcrowded Oak Ridge branch campus.

City officials expect to have informal budget hearings at the Municipal Building later this week, and City Council will consider the budget on first reading at 7 p.m. Monday, May 14.