CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – With less than a week to get a city budget approved, Mayor Joe Pitts has given up on his proposed Transportation 2020+ Plan, which would have required a 20-cent tax increase.

Instead, Pitts will ask the City Council to consider a new budget with no tax increase – and no new funding for the roads and sidewalk improvements – during special called meetings on Monday and Wednesday.

After approving the budget on the first reading Thursday, council members voted to reverse course and reject it on second reading Tuesday.

The new proposal will call for the property tax rate to remain at $1.0296 per $100 of assessed value, eliminate the Tier 1 capital project funding envisioned in Transportation 2020+, and cut the planned additional Street Department maintenance crew and equipment, according to a city news release.

“Transportation 2020+ was designed to tackle our critical transportation infrastructure needs across the entire city. We put special emphasis on making it fair, equitable and balanced, with projects that would improve transportation in all Wards,” Pitts said in the release. “Now, with the City Council unwilling to support the full 20-cent tax increase to pay for it, it would be unwise to pick and choose which parts of town get projects and which ones don’t. We designed Transportation 2020+ as a ‘One City’ plan, with each property owner helping to pay for it and every part of town sharing in the benefits.”

The plan included such projects as expansion of Tylertown Road and Oakland Road and a new Spring Creek Parkway Connector to relieve traffic on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard and Interstate 24. Sidewalks were a major part of the tier 1 projects, particularly sidewalks near schools.

No piecemeal approach

Pitts said it also would be unwise to embark on expensive design and engineering of a limited number of projects in Tier 1 without funding support for the complete Transportation 2020+ Plan by the City Council.

“We’ve been down that road before,” Pitts said. “In the past, the city would get projects started, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on design and engineering, and then the council would change its mind and not provide the necessary funding for construction. Tackling our critical transportation needs has to be a comprehensive program, approved up front, or else we risk throwing good money after bad.”

Pitts said he was disappointed that the City Council chose not to fund Transportation 2020+.

“Failure to approve and implement the comprehensive transportation plan will compound traffic congestion as the city and area population continues to grow,” Pitts said. “Traffic congestion will continue to be a threat to our economic development and prosperity.”

Risk of no budget

Pitts said the City Council must approve a new budget before July 1 or risk saddling the city with an inadequate “continuing budget” based on the 2021 spending plan. A continuing budget takes effect when the government fails to approve a budget by the start of its fiscal year.

A continuing budget can’t include any capital spending, which means that ongoing capital projects, such as Rossview Road widening, would be shut down. It also prohibits single expenditures over $5,000 and prohibits a general wage increase for employees.

It could also jeopardize the city’s bond rating and increase future borrowing costs, risk lawsuits from contractors involved in capital projects that would be halted, and risk increased costs to get contractors back on site once a budget is approved.

“We can’t risk not approving a 2022 budget and being forced into a continuing budget situation,” Pitts said. “That kind of chaos would be an unacceptable outcome for a dynamic, growing city like Clarksville.”

The first special-called meeting will be Monday, June 28, at 4:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers on Public Square.