By Katie Northcott, News Director
The Coffee County Commission passed its fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget at its meeting on Tuesday, June 23.
Budget & Finance Committee Chairman Tim Morris said that the budget included all proposed project funding from county department heads, a 3% pay increase for county employees, and five cars for the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department.
The county’s Budget & Finance Committee met three time this month to discuss the budget proposal. The County Commission passed the proposal with a 16-0-0-1 vote (Commissioner Jimmy Hollandsworth absent).
“We’re spending our money as wisely as we can,” Morris said.
The budget leaves the county at around a $2 million projected deficit for FY27. Members of the Budget & Finance Committee have repeatedly emphasized that the county has previously come out in the black during years when the budget projected a deficit.
“We’re starting out with a deficit because of the method that we used to be generous with our expenditures, overestimating them perhaps and underestimating our revenues so that we stay safe,” Commissioner Dowe Jones said at the June 18 meeting of the committee.
County Mayor Dennis Hunt said that there will be no property tax increase, this year. He said that tax rates have gone down due to this year’s mandatory property reappraisal. The County Commission adopted the state certified tax rate.
“Property owners need to understand the rate is about 30% less, so if your property went up in appraised value around 30, 40 percent, you’re not going to see much difference in your property tax bill next year,” Hunt said.
