La Vergne City Council Passes 2020-21 Budget
The City of La Vergne Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to pass the Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget at a special meeting on June 23 at City Hall. The FY 2020-21 general fund budget is $23,082,666. The board passed the second reading with a 3-1 vote.
There is no property tax increase or water bill rate increase in this fiscal year budget. The current property tax rate is $0.71 per $100 assessed value. The last property tax increase was in 2011 and since then the rate has been dropped three times.
There are no budget cuts being made due to the COVID-19 pandemic however, the board chose not to fund everything requested by department heads. Due to the pandemic the city is preparing for a worst case scenario but doesn’t plan to dip into any reserves to balance the budget. This budget does include a three-percent increase for employees.
No jobs are being cut from the budget. Five jobs total will be added next fiscal year: one assistant police chief, one assistant fire chief, a parks and recreation supervisor, a maintenance supervisor and a utility engineer. All positions are part of the general fund except the utility engineer which is part of water/sewer/stormwater. Several other positions were requested but not funded. These positions will be reviewed later in the fiscal year and could possibly be included at that time.
Some of the capital projects include a switch refresh and fiber lines for IT, a new roof for the library, a leaf collection pickup machine and truck for the storm water department, and a new roll up door for the water treatment plant, among others.
The streets department plans to begin the widening design and construction on Carothers Road, the realignment of Charter and Centerpointe, as well as designs for several other road projects.
