Oak Ridge Today

County to consider budget, tax rate again on Aug. 13

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Anderson County Teachers at County Commission

Roughly three-quarters of those attending the budget deliberations at Anderson County Commission wore red—”Red for Public Ed”—on Monday, July 20, 2015. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Anderson County commissioners have called another special meeting—this one on Thursday, August 13—to consider the county budget and tax rate. At stake are pay raises for county employees and educators and more than $1 million in new money for schools in Anderson County, Clinton, and Oak Ridge.

County commissioners approved a budget supported by a 10-cent property tax rate increase during a regular meeting on Monday, July 20. Eight cents of that increase was meant to provide most of the money needed for 2 percent pay raises for teachers and staff in Anderson County Schools. Anderson County Schools expected to receive another $700,000 or so from the tax rate increase, while Oak Ridge Schools anticipated an extra $423,000 and Clinton City Schools were projected to get another $134,000.

The other two cents approved during the July 20 meeting was for 2 percent pay raises for Anderson County employees, with the exception of county commissioners and other elected officials.

But in a follow-up special meeting on Thursday, July 30, the Anderson County Commission rejected the tax increase when it came time to officially adopt the new tax rate for the fiscal year that began July 1. For now, county and school officials are continuing to operate under last year’s spending levels. [Read more…]

Guest column: Adapting to change

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I can’t function without my…(fill in the blank)!

Cell phone? I survived into my early 30s without one, and never even realized it was a problem. I admit that now, having carried one for a number of years, it’s terribly disconcerting to be without. My parents can easily recall a time when most families had only one car—a concept that is unthinkable to most of us today. But faced with challenges, we adapt. We can, we must, and we will.

Families living in most communities outside Oak Ridge are accustomed to not having school bus service within a mile or mile-and-a-half of the school, so our current turmoil seems like no big deal to them. To us though, having to suddenly live without something we’ve always had (except for a brief period several years ago) feels like the end of life as we know it.

With the advent of social media, the volume of discontent and velocity of misinformation has grown exponentially. It is most unfortunate that a member of City Council chose to announce in Monday’s meeting that the School Board intended to cut transportation no matter how much money the city provided; that is incorrect, as evidenced by the fact that there was no reduction in transportation services in our budget passed on May 27 (first reading) and May 29 (second reading). [Read more…]

School officials not in favor of budget cuts, but some could support tax hike

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Oak Ridge Board of Education

The Oak Ridge Board of Education and school administrators are pictured above during a meeting earlier this year. (File photo)

Note: This story was updated at 12:15 p.m.

Oak Ridge school officials made it clear last week that they’re not in favor of budget cuts, and at least a few suggested they might support a property tax rate increase to prevent reductions in staff and programs.

Earlier this month, the Oak Ridge Board of Education was presented three different budget options to start the annual fiscal discussions. One is known as the “Losing Students, Families, and Staff” budget; the second is known as the “Retaining Students, Families, and Staff” budget; and the third is known as “Attracting Students, Families, and Staff.”

The presentations outline a range of potential cuts including reducing nursing jobs and teaching positions; eliminating the Family Resource Center, elementary strings program, and preschool transportation; and increasing class sizes and stretching the student walk zone to one mile. They also include a range of potential benefits, including starting a digital technology initiative known as 1:1, hiring technology personnel, adding special education and custodial staff, and giving employees a 2 percent pay raise. [Read more…]

Budget cuts cause concern in research community, including at ORNL

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Thom Mason

Thom Mason

The budget deal that Congress approved earlier this month to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling kept in place automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.

But those across-the-board cuts are causing concern in the scientific community, including at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In August, ORNL Director Thom Mason said the lab had been, up to that point, mostly immune from the cuts because of steps that UT-Battelle, the managing and operating contractor, had already taken to cut costs, including through workforce restructuring, reduced staff and overhead budgets, and benefit changes.

“We’ve just been doing everything we can to prepare for lean budgets,” Mason said. [Read more…]

With Y-12 furloughs pending, union leader, activists to urge Congress to resolve fiscal disputes

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Y-12 National Security Complex Aerial View

Thousands of furloughs are expected at the Y-12 National Security Complex later this week, and on Tuesday, a union leader and political activists will urge Congress to reopen the federal government, pays the nation’s bills, and “get back to work.” An aerial view of Y-12 is pictured above. (Photo courtesy B&W Y-12)

Thousands of furloughs are expected at the Y-12 National Security Complex later this week, and on Tuesday, a union leader and political activists will urge Congress to reopen the federal government, pay the nation’s bills, and “get back to work,” a press release said.

Steve Jones, president of the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, will be the featured speaker at a 10:30 a.m. Tuesday press conference organized by Organizing for Action. The press conference is at the ATLC union hall at 109 Viking Road in Oak Ridge.

Y-12 started an “orderly shutdown” on Monday, Oct. 7, because Congress has not passed a budget in the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The press release said Y-12 will go into a safe and secure shutdown mode on Thursday, and only essential personnel—about 900 people, with half of them being security forces—will remain. [Read more…]

Guest column: Questions remain on Oak Ridge cleanup funding

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David Martin

David Martin

By David Martin, Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board chair

There is great uncertainty on what the looming federal budget cuts will be and what effect they will have on funding for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Environmental Management, or EM, program at the Oak Ridge Reservation. We can be confident that budget cuts are coming. It is going to take a coordinated effort on the part of the DOE-Oak Ridge EM, regulators, and stakeholders to minimize the impact on current and future remediation projects, and on the men and women who carry out this work.

Right now DOE-EM is operating on a temporary six-month budget. This budget covers just the first half of Fiscal Year 2013 and is based on half of the FY 2012 budget. We should know soon how changes in the federal budget affect Oak Ridge EM for the second half of 2013. This still leaves the 2014 budget in question. [Read more…]

Sequestration could lead to $23 million in budget cuts at TVA

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The automatic federal spending cuts set to start taking effect Friday could result in $23 million in budget cuts at the Tennessee Valley Authority, a spokesman said Wednesday.

But the federal spending cuts—also referred to as sequestration—would probably not lead to temporary layoffs at the public utility, TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield said. The federal cuts would trim $85 billion from defense and domestic spending for the rest of the fiscal year.

“We anticipate that we would not have to do furloughs, and we would be able to manage that through head count attrition,” Mansfield said. “At this point, we are not seeing an immediate impact.”

[Read more…]