Commissioner Matthew Tinker, who works for the county school system, offered an amendment to remove the 2.5% reduction of the ASFT going to the Lenoir City school system. His motion was seconded by Julia Hurley. Ultimately, Tinker's amendment failed on a 7-3 vote with Commissioner Harold Duff joining with Tinker and Hurley.

Commissioner Duff offered an amendment to give $2,500.00 to the Loudon County Education Foundation. Duff's motion was seconded by Hurley. Ultimately, Duff's amendment failed on a 7-3 vote with Tinker joining with Duff and Hurley.

Finally, the vote for the overall budget passed on a 7-3 vote with Tinker, Hurley and Duff voting not to pass the budget , which included the Loudon County school system. Commissioners Kelly Brewster, David Meers, Bill Satterfield, Gary Whitfield, Henry Cullen myself and Adam Waller voted to pass the eighty million dollar budget.

Lenoir City director of schools was in attendance to show her opposition to the 2.5% reduction in the ASFT funding along with several LCBOE school employees and school board members. Earlier in the day, Ms. Barker had sent an email to county commissioners asking that they not vote for the budget if the 2.5% reduction was in the budget.

It's a little sad that Ms. Barker would ask commissioners to no vote the entire county budget, which included the Loudon County school system, and shut down county government for any amount of money. Fortunately, the majority of commissioners voted for the budget.