Pay Boost for Teachers Starts in January

Tena Lee in the Hendersonville Standard reports on the recently approved teacher pay raises that are now set to begin in January:

A $4,000 annual pay increase for all Sumner County teachers, principals and other certified employees will take effect in January following votes by the Sumner County Commission on Monday and the Sumner County Board of Education on Tuesday.

On Monday, teachers, principals and school nurses descended on the county’s administration building for a vote to set the county’s tax rate at $2.262 per $100 of assessed property value. The rate is 33 cents more than the certified rate of $1.9284.

Of the 33-cent increase, 12 cents will go toward funding raises for certified employees at an estimated cost of $8.8 million. Two cents, or roughly $1.2 million, will go toward hiring school resource officers in the remaining 15 schools that do not currently have one.

MORE>

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Teacher Pay Raise to Start in January

School Board member Sarah Andrews explains that the Board of Education approved the recommendation to start teacher pay raises in January following approval by the County Commisison of a new tax rate to fund the increase.

Here's more:

At tonight’s school board meeting we approved the county commission’s recommendation to start the pay increase for certified staff in January. Our finance Department will work on numbers to present as an amendment to our budget later this fall. This will not only allow our employees to receive these raises sooner but also help our principals to attract top talent this spring as they look to hire new teachers.

We also approved the rates for employee health insurance. We have very minimal increases ($5-15 depending on plan) which is a major benefit to our employees-current and those seeking employment at Sumner County Schools. Due to negotiations and decreasing the costs with our dental plan we will also be able to provide long term disability to all employees (classified and certified) with 3 years or more of service at no additional cost to the employee. This benefit will start with the new plan year in January.

Lastly, Dr Phillips confirmed that with the approval of our 2019-20 budget last night we will complete the cycle started in 2014 of increasing pay for our classified staff by increasing pay for custodians, nutrition workers, and bus assistants to a minimum of $10/hr. These employees will see this reflected in their September checks. September will also include the raise amount from August.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Approved

By a vote of 17-7, the Sumner County Commission last night approved a budget and certified tax rate. The measures included a $4000 pay raise for all teachers. If the Sumner County Board of Education approves, the raise will go into effect in January.

The new budget and tax rate will also fund an SRO in every existing school (hiring 15 new SROs), add funds to the highway department, and begin a construction project in Gallatin to include a new courthouse, parking garage, and jail module. The Sumner County Jail has been overcrowded for at least nine months and Sumner County's courts are scattered in multiple locations. The courthouse on the square is unsafe for employees and visitors.

11th District County Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield spoke in opposition to funding teacher pay raises and the other items paid for by the new funding. Speaking for nearly 30 minutes, Mansfield ultimately offered no alternative solutions. He mentioned several ideas for alternate funding, but never made an actual motion to amend the recommended budget. While he claimed he is "for teachers," he failed to offer a way to fund the raises he supposedly believes they deserve.

Additionally, Mansfield proceeded to insult the intelligence of Sumner County's educators by repeatedly referring to them as "pawns" who had been duped into supporting a tax increase that wasn't actually necessary. His own inability to offer a viable alternative funding source exposed his charade as little more than a failed filibuster attempt.

Likewise, 1st District Commissioner Moe Taylor offered a budget and tax history lesson devoid of many facts and then moved to amend the budget and then voted against his own amendment. He later admitted he was "confused."

Of the more than 40 individuals making public comments on the budget, the speakers were 2-1 in favor of raising the tax rate and approving a budget that included money for roads, SROs, teacher raises, and other needed improvements. Still, a small group of speakers affiliated with Kevin and Laura Baigert's Sumner Taxpayer's Alliance spoke in opposition. Many wore stickers calling teachers "pawns" and suggested that while they supported teachers, they didn't support the mechanism for funding their raise.

Kevin Baigert himself compared teachers wearing red to soldiers in Communist China who were just doing what they were told.

Many of the anti-tax/anti-raise speakers seemed to have no memory of the history of budgeting in Sumner County. None acknowledged the budget crisis of 2012 brought about by a previous County Commission that spent all the reserve funds and dipped into the hospital fund proceeds. Instead, the anti-tax crowd suggested spending all the reserves and using the hospital fund (one-time money) to pay for teacher raises (a recurring expense).

Apparently, few in this group remember the actions that led to nearly eliminating all portable trailers in Sumner County, eliminating many student fees paid by parents, planning for a new school campus (Liberty Creek), beginning the hiring of SROs for schools, and improving pay for classified employees across the district. As a result of a slow, deliberate, methodical approach, all classified employees in Sumner County now make at least $10 an hour. Pay for substitute teachers has also improved dramatically.

Additionally, during the 2018-19 budget cycle, Director of Schools Del Phillips indicated he was asking the School Board to fund one round of classified pay raises in 2018-19, adding in all remaining classified in 2019-20 (current budget cycle), and then moving forward with a significant raise for teachers.

The point: The idea that a pay raise for teachers is some sort of surprise is simply -- to borrow from Commissioner Mansfield -- "a false narrative."

Ultimately, 17 County Commissioners voted in favor of fiscal responsibility, low taxes, and much needed improvements in county services. Meanwhile, 7 voted to kick the can down the road -- to support a philosophy of spending all the money with no planning for the future.

Here's how they voted:

Voting YES:

Geminden, Hinton, Driver, Foster, Schell, Ring, Sullivan, DeWitt, Echols, Rhodes, Tucker, Chris Taylor, Goode, Krueger, Langford, Guthrie, Nipper

Voting NO:

Hyde, Becker, Wright, Tinsley, Graves, Moe Taylor, Mansfield.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Budget Committee Recommends New Tax Rate

The Budget Committee of the Sumner County Commission met last night (August 12th) and recommended a new tax rate be adopted by the full County Commission.

The new rate would be $2.262 if the full Commission votes in favor of the recommendation.

The state-adjusted "revenue neutral" rate is $1.93.

The proposed rate includes a 15-cent adjustment for inflation since the last tax increase in 2014.

Additionally, around 12 cents would pay for a $4000 raise for every teacher in Sumner County.

Other needs funded by the proposed increase include road improvements, a new facility for the jail, a parking garage in Gallatin, and adding SROs to every school in the county (15 new hires).

Even with the proposed new rate, Sumner County would have one of the lowest tax rates in middle Tennessee.

At $2.26, Sumner's rate would be only slightly higher than Rutherford County, and significantly lower than Wilson, Davidson, Cheatham, Montgomery, and Robertson.

According to Zillow, the average sale price of homes in Sumner County is around $260,000.

Based on those values, the new tax rate would mean $216 more per year for the average taxpayer, or just about $18 a month.

The County Commission will meet at 7:00 PM on Monday, August 19th at the County Commission Chambers in Gallatin to consider the new rate.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews


Got a news tip? Email us: newshendersonville@gmail.com

Merrol's Murky Memory

Apparently, County Commissioner Merrol Hyde has forgotten that under his leadership, Sumner County routinely dipped into reserve funds to balance the budget. He's forgotten that his leadership of the County Commission coincided with budgets that got Sumner County to a point where without an infusion of funds, we'd be bankrupt by July 2015.

He told the Hendersonville Star News on November 7th:

“My problem is this, the old commission did a good job of spending the money they had wisely. We estimated the budget conservatively. We weren’t dipping into reserves. We had plenty of money coming in the next year.”

It seems Hyde has forgotten that back in 2012, the County Commission bailed out its badly mismanaged Insurance Trust to the tune of $3 million. The Commission authorized another $4 million plus in special project spending. All from reserve funds.

Yes, reserve funds.

Which Hyde said his County Commission didn't need to balance the budget.

Except that they did. Because the only way the budget was balanced otherwise was to not properly fund the Insurance Trust so that the County's contributions were artificially low.

In fact, $3 million new dollars are being pumped into the Insurance Trust this year. Because the "old Commission" failed to manage it properly.

Hyde is counting on the public having a short memory. But the evidence is clear: Hyde's leadership was about budgets out of balance and reserve funds paying for bailouts.

Oh, and the last time taxes went up in Sumner County? Merrol Hyde was Director of Schools (and on the County Commission) and presented a budget that was out of balance. His proposed solution? A tax increase.


For more on news in Hendersonville, follow @HvilleNews

Sumner County Tax Rate Comparison

In light of the recently adjusted Sumner County tax rate, here's a comparison of Sumner County's rate of $2.50 per $100 of assessed value relative to other counties in Middle Tennessee:

Sumner:             $2.50

Cheatham:         $2.78

Montgomery:    $3.14

Robertson:        $2.96

Rutherford:       $2.56

Wilson:             $2.57

Chris Taylor Takes on the Budget

County Commissioner Chris Taylor has prepared a 6-page document that explains the reasoning behind the new property tax rate of $2.50.

Taylor uses charts and graphs and straightforward explanation to note why the County Commission set the rate where it did.

Here are a few highlights:

1) The property tax rate had not been raised or adjusted for inflation since 2003. Real purchasing power has declined by about 21 cents on the dollar over that time period. That means the county brings in the same dollar amount and it buys less and less each year.

2) The previous County Commission borrowed over $22 million from various reserve funds over the past 5 years to make up for the deficit budgets they were running.

3) The County Insurance Trust was bailed out using reserve funds in 2013 and will need another $3 million bailout to remain solvent in 2015. The Commission intends to correct this problem going forward by charging an appropriate rate for benefits and by properly funding the employee portion of benefits

4) Each 1 cent increase on the tax rate generates roughly $400,000

5) Operating funds for schools, including the new Burrus Elementary, account for nearly 18 cents of the increase

6) An additional portion of the increase will be used to pay for capital projects at schools, including a building plan that will both increase space at existing facilities and repair aging HVAC systems.

7) There are 700-800 people in Sumner County without running water. It will cost roughly $30 million to correct this problem -- but once fixed, it will have long-term health and economic development benefits.

YES - you did just read that there are homes in part of Sumner County that in 2014 do NOT have running water. 

The rate was set at $2.50 so as to allow for projected growth and adjust for inflation over time. In other words, the current County Commission did not want to just cover expenses and be faced with a crisis again next year. This rate, explains Taylor, will allow for growth and the accumulation of reserves.

Read his full presentation here.

For more on issues facing Hendersonville, follow @HvilleNews

County Commission Sets Tax Rate

The Sumner County Commission met Monday night and set the new tax rate at $2.50. That's a 42 cent increase over the rate set after the recent appraisal process. The new rate will mean a cost of about $10-13 a month for the average Sumner County homeowner.

The increase was approved after a presentation from Sumner County Finance Director David Lawing made a presentation noting that if there was no new revenue, the county would essentially be out of money by July 1st.

Here's Lawing's presentation.

After years of passing deficit budgets and funding them with reserve funds under the previous Commission leadership, the county ran out of options. The new rate will allow for management of growth in the county, provide funds to improve existing school facilities (significantly reducing reliance on portable classrooms), and shore up the county's finances so a dire situation like this year's can be avoided in the future.

The increase is the first passed in 11 years. The new rate is among the lowest in middle Tennessee and still, in raw dollars, lower than the rate in 1997.