SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — A Shelby County budget committee met for the first time Wednesday to hear presentations from various branches about where the mayor’s office has proposed cuts.
Balancing a more than one billion dollar budget is anything but easy.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris laid out his upcoming proposals Monday.
He acknowledged to commissioners things will be tight, and they should try at all costs to avoid layoffs.
But given the pandemic state we’re living in and starting with a budget gap of $39.4 million, there are going to be some big challenges.
“We’re in a time of the unknown right now, and it is scary,” Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert said.
Halbert’s office handles things like vehicle registration, and she said because of the coronavirus, her team is dealing with fee collection delays and not being able to help customers in-person.
“Our executive team has seen me just livid; I mean in tears, screaming,” Halbert said. “I mean thinking that we have a situation that exists in our county that we obviously were not prepared for, we were not made aware of, and there are just still a lot of unknowns. In the last week without having foot traffic in, we generated more than 16,000 online tag renewals alone.”
She told commissioners $185,000 in personnel reductions has been slated to come out of her budget. She said she does not support the cuts because she’s already operating with a deficit.
“If you look at our revenue, Shelby County Clerk’s Office just started getting its backdated revenue for July 2019,” Halbert said.
The chief administrator for the sheriff’s office also spoke to commissioners Wednesday.
They too are looking at cuts of more than $2 million, but the mayor’s new budget calls for nearly $4 million more for new resources for the department.
This would allow for 30 new additional patrolman positions, who would be patrolling the soon to be de-annexed areas.
In the end, their budget would end up having an increase of more than $1 million.
Halbert expects her office will start seeing more funding in the the months to come as more payments are processed.
Mayor Harris has also proposed an increase of $16.50 for vehicle registration. That money would go toward education and wouldn’t hit until all portions of the government are back up and running and people are back to work.
Budget talks will resume next week.
