Lenoir City cuts property taxes by 5%

Alyssa B. Martin news-herald.net

Lenoir City Council unanimously voted for the proposed 2024-2025 budget Monday evening, which will cut city residents’ property taxes by 5% for a 0.9455 rate.

This will be the first year since 2016 that the city has cut property taxes. For the past eight years, the rate has stayed consistent at 0.9955.

“The Budget Committee, as we all know, when we have the second reading … the budget can change at some given point during the first reading and the second reading,” Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens said during the meeting. “And it has changed this time for the good. I’d like to announce that the Budget Committee and I have come up with a tax reduction in Lenoir City.”

The mayor, as well as other members of the Council, spoke words of praise to Maggie Hunt — Lenoir City’s finance director.

According to their high regards, she spent many hours putting together the budget to give some relief to Lenoir City citizens.

“I know the Budget Committee feels as I do that times are tough,” Aikens said. “I give a lot of credit, as we did at the last Council meeting, to Ms. (Maggie) Hunt, our finance director. She’s worked very hard on this. … It’s a good thing for the residents of Lenoir City. It’s a conservative budget. We have a strong reserve.”

Aikens further explained that the city has approximately $7 million in reserves, and the Council and Budget Committee wanted to extend those savings to taxpayers.

Included in the budget, too, is a 3.5% raise for all city employees.

“I would like to ask all our residents to look around as they come and go to work or in and out of their homes and look and see just what this city’s been able to do over the last few years,” City Councilman and Budget Committee Chair Eddie Simpson said. “I think it’s impressive what we’ve done and how we’ve kept a tax rate of $0.99 for several years.

“I just think it’s a wonderful saying of what we have in employees, and I give a special thanks to Ms. Hunt and our city manager,” Simpson added. “They do a fabulous job in recommending things to us. It’s not an easy thing to run a city, and I think most would agree with that, but I find it enjoyable to be a part of this city and be able to know what’s coming next and what we can do to help everybody.

“I just think it’s a good place to live. We’re all proud of it,” he said “I hope it continues to stay that way. … If we can keep the negativity out of our city, you’d be surprised what we could do.”

Councilwoman Jennifer Wampler, who also sits on the Budget Committee, said that even on Lenoir City’s worst day … she is proud to be here.

She told Council, and the nearly dozen in attendance, that they were able to allocate the necessary funds to each department and provide a little extra for the “wants” as well, while also cutting the tax rate — a feat for which she thanked the mayor, for his leadership, and Hunt, for her dedication and knowledge.

The Council unanimously voted for all of the items on Monday evening’s agenda, with little changes, including the Lenoir City Schools’ Annual Budget, the Planning Commission’s recommendation to establish a moratorium prohibiting building apartments for one year and filling the vacancy at the Lenoir City Fire Department.

Lenoir City Police Chief Don White requested altering his item for the bids on the Firing Range in the new Public Safety Training Facility that will be in Downtown Lenoir City. Bids were opened on Thursday, June 20, and all responses were either out of budget or didn’t meet bid requirements.

White recommended rejecting all current bid offers and requested a change in the bid description and requirements. Council unanimously approved and gave permission for White to continue on with the process, without having to come back to Council to approve the altered bid.

The agenda for Monday’s meeting, including all items that were unanimously approved, can be found on the city’s website at www.lenoircitytn. gov/2024-city-documents.