Johnson City news and politics » Budget

WC county owned property meeting

Ethan Flynn — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:39:46 +0000

I stopped in on the county owned property meeting. It seemed like a productive meeting. Two exciting savings opportunities are coming up:

1) Savings on electricity: with money from a grant that the mayor’s office was working on, we will be able to save a significant amount money on electricity. The last I can remember, we spend between $700k and $800k annually for electricity. If we can find savings of 10% to 20% we could save well over $100k. The credit goes to Mayor Eldridge and Willie Shrewsbury for that.

2) Solid Waste: We spend around $500k on solid waste. Long story short, by bidding this out, we could save an estimated $200k. That’s good news. We’ll see what happens with this.

updated from iPhone

Washington County Superintendent warns commission of dire circumstances

Ethan Flynn — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:22:45 +0000

Washington County Superintendent Ron Dykes told the commission last night that they will be very short on money this year unless something changes. He called the state’s raised standards “unachievable” and said it costs the county $300,000 more just to implement. On top of that, there is a step increase in salaries that add another $300,000 annually. When asked what the pupil to student ratio was he dodged the question by saying at the high-school level its a little higher than “we would like to see it.” It will be interesting to see how this all transpires.

On further news, WC is on a continuing budget until they vote on a budget for fiscal 2010-2011.

Lawmakers slow down spending

Ethan Flynn — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:10:59 +0000

Lawmakers are reacting but is spending really slowing? I don’t think so. Here’s an interesting read on how DC is reacting though.

http://timesnews.net/article.php?id=9023686

Rails to Trails a great investment for Johnson City

Ethan Flynn — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:32:40 +0000

mobile.johnsoncitypress.com/ARTICLE/77394

No more warnings. Red light cameras cashing in.

Ethan Flynn — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:19:49 +0000

Red light cameras in Johnson City are now citing cars. Good luck appealing if your wrongfully ticketed.

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9023557

Johnson City’s school budget put in perspective.

Ethan Flynn — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:10:45 +0000

After giving the jc school board a hard time about being blindsided at the city commission meeting, I found this article about school expenditure rankings. It makes me want to visit TNDOE myself. On the other hand, I’ll let tricities.com do the work for me. Thanks for keeping us informed tricities.com.

http://m.tricities.com/tricities/db_6927/contentdetail.htm?full=true&contentguid=hynScOaF&pn=0&ps=#display

School board budget projections get punked by city

Ethan Flynn — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:47:09 +0000

The city, whose had mounting pressure to pony up an extra $2 million pulled a fast one on the school board to straighten them out. When the schoolboard rallied all of their concerned supporters and went to the commission meeting to discuss their budget shortfall, the city had one of their staff make a presentation on projected surplus’ the schools will have next year. Ouch! Whoever headed that up by the city was pretty smart.

I’m also curious what Manahan, Brock, and Van Brocklin think about this.
http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/ARTICLE/77081

“Fish is the new Pork!” Tn budget held hostage

Ethan Flynn — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:45:51 +0000

John Lundberg dropped the one liner “Fish is the new Pork,” as Speaker Williams holds out for his fish hatchery. Hopefully Speaker Williams will let it go. $16 Million is too much.

http://www.examiner.com/x-20988-Tennessee-Statehouse-Examiner~y2010m5d25-Fish-hatchery-holds-up-the-Tennessee-budget-legislative-adjournment