The Loudon County commission budget committee had their first meeting last Friday and will continue meetings through June. All county department's have submitted their budget requests to the finance department. Now it's up to the budget committee to work through the requests then present their budget proposal to the full commission for consideration.

All department request, including the Board Of Education and the sheriff's department, total well over a two million dollar increase in spending over the current year budget. To meet all the these requests would require a hefty property tax increase.

The two largest requests come from the board of education and the sheriff's office. The BOE is asking for an additional million dollars plus and the sheriff's department is asking for nearly another million.

The budget committee will address each request and hopefully bring that two million dollar increase way down to avoid any property tax increase.