The county commission passed Williamson County's 2021-2022 budget of over $650 million on Monday.
In a daylong voting meeting, the commission approved the proposed budgetwith around 76% of funds going to the county's public schools and the remaindersupportingother county services and fundsfor the next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2021.
The budget passed with an 18-4 vote. Gregg Lawrence, Sean Aiello, Brian Beathard and Erin Nations voted no, citing concerns about certain funding increases, public comments on school curriculum, and a property tax hike.
The commission did ultimately approve the tax hike, locking in a new property tax rate of $1.88 per $100 of taxable property across the county.
Here's what to know about the budget:
A new property tax rate
This rate includes the certified tax rate of around $1.75 that was established this year —a reappraisal year —in which the county saw an average of32% growth in taxable property value across Williamson County.
According to the proposed budget and the county's director of budgeting and purchasing Nena Graham, the $1.88 propertytax rate was recommended following final reappraisal outcomesto address the end of the Hall Income Taxand COVID-19 related revenue losses, like those of the county's hoteltax (down 48%) and its parks and recreation fees (down 24%)among others.
The total rate is broken down in order to support five funds including the County General Fund, Solid Waste Sanitation Fund, General PurposeSchoolFund, General Debt Service Fund and the Rural Debt Service Fund.
Some commissioners were concerned about the 13 additional cents despite the ultimate rate being lower thanlast year's $2.22.
At the meeting, Aiello asked whether the tax rate could be lowered if more typical revenue flow is seen in the months to come.
"We would hope to regain that, but of course, there's no way to know when we would be back to the pre-pandemic levels," Graham said.
Commissioner Judy Herbert said an increase in the county tax rate doesn't mean all residents will see an increase.
"This was the appraisal year. Whether you get a tax increase is according to how much your property [value] went up," Herbert said. "I've already pulled the numbers, and if you're in downtown Franklin and your property went up 245%, you're going to pay more in taxes. Butif you live out in the rural area, your property didn't go up as high of a percent and you're going to pay less.
"Each person is according to their appraisal price."
Nonetheless, some were uncomfortable giving the go-ahead. Last year, the commission was able to approve a budget without a tax rate increase.
"I'm finding it difficult to vote for a tax increase given the year we just had," Bethard said.
Lawrence proposed an amended property tax rate of $1.82.
County Mayor Rogers Anderson expressed frustration at that idea,saying the higher tax rate would support certain obligations like providing pay raises and insurance cost increases for county employees.
"You cut this budget, and I'm going to let the employees know that you didn't want to vote for them to have a pay raise. It's that simple," he said. "We are fighting like the dickens to keep employees, and we’re fighting like dickens [to find] new employees."
The amendmentproposal ultimately failed and the $1.88 rate passed with 19 votes of approval and Lawrence, Beathard and Aiello voting "no."
Williamson County:Get caught up on school construction, improvement plans as Williamson County grows
Over $414M passed for county schools
The General Purpose School Fund will receive $414,579,134 despite heated discussion, making schools funding the largest allocation in the budget.
According to administrators, the budget increased from last year to fund staffing increases, a 4% raise, "super subs" and increased insurance costs.
Williamson County Schools Superintendent Jason Golden said around 85% of the schools' budget funds "people."Over 700 school employees are funded by the county, while others are funded by the state's Basic Education Program.
This coming school year, 40,397 students have enrolled in WCS, which is over 1,000 more students than were enrolled after the first month of the 2020-2021 school year. Enrollment numbers are just over 300 studentsless than pre-pandemic enrollment.
'Wit & Wisdom':Here's what to know about the debate over curriculum in Williamson schools
The majority of the commissioners' discussion focused on the elementary school English Language Arts curriculum recently put under fire by the local chapter of Moms for Liberty.
Ahead of the budget's approval, 13 people addressedthe commission and shared their objections to the "Wit & Wisdom" curriculum.
The county commission, which is the county's legislative and policy-making body, does not decide matters of school curriculum.
Commissioner Barb Sturgeon said she shares the opinion of many of the public commenters and others who oppose the curriculum after its first year of use.
"We have too few curriculum producers, and those producers don't necessarily have American interests at heart," she said. "We don't have a lot of good content to choose from, in my opinion, but if you don't share my opinion...you can't fix something that you don't see as a problem."
Golden reassured commissioners that "Wit & Wisdom"is being reviewed by a board policy-mandated committee after receiving formal complaints on specific texts in the curriculum. Despite there being no timeline for completion yet, he said the committee will do a thorough job and has the power to take action onall or none of the curriculum if desired.
Commissioner Jennifer Mason said she'd heard constituents say their messages to school administration are "falling on deaf ears" when the district says the issue is being addressed.
"How do we bridge that gap so they understand the process, they're informed of the process and they feel like the process is working effectively?" Mason asked.
"What I have heard is 'You're made all the changes that I am asking you to make,'" Golden said. "What I've talked about is that we're thoughtful, when we talk about eliminating books we go through that thought process and do it the right way."
The General Purpose SchoolFund ultimately passed with 20 commissioners voting "yes,"one abstention, and Lawrence giving the only "no."
Other key items in the budget:
General Fund: $117,381,778
Solid Waste Sanitation Fund: $7,643,267
Drug Control Fund: $170,250
Highway Fund: $13,539,162
General Debt Service Fund: $45,390,000
Rural Debt Service Fund: $32,720,000
Central Cafeteria Fund: $14,068,454
Extended School Program Fund: $4,939,162
Anika Exum is a reporter covering Williamson County for The Tennessean. Reach her at aexum@tennessean.com or on Twitter@aniexum.
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