CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – It was strike three for Clarksville’s 2016 budget Monday as the City Council voted once again not to pass Mayor Kim McMillan’s latest budget proposal. It’s the third time the council has met to try and get a budget passed before the end of the city’s fiscal year which is Tuesday, June 30.
Since the city budget proposal was announced by the mayor the main issue remains a planned property tax increase. For the first two council budget meetings the tax increase was at the original 18-cents but McMillan came into Monday’s meeting with only a 13-cent property tax increase.
Efforts by the council to lower the tax rate even further, to $1.285, less than the proposed $1.31 per $100 of assessed value were unsuccessful. The entire budget ordinance then failed to pass the council by a vote of 7-4.
McMillan issued a statement Monday night about efforts to pass the city budget. “We are out of time to pass a budget by July 1, the start of our new fiscal year. We will now revert back to the restrictions of the 2015 budget,” said McMillan.
The mayor added that within the next few days and weeks, the ramifications of the council’s inaction will be felt and the city will be in breach of contract involving multiple matters.
“I have presented three different balanced budgets to the council that addressed our growth and increased public safety and infrastructure needs so that they could make amendments and modify the tax rate if they were not satisfied with what I had presented,” McMillan said.
Another special called session of the City Council on the budget that was supposed to take place Tuesday, June 30 has been cancelled. The regular July meeting of the City Council is scheduled for Thursday, July 2 at 7:00 p.m.