Oak Ridge property tax stays the same
But residents will pay more for water and sewer
Oak Ridge City Council members Ellen Smith and Charlie Hensley talk with each other at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building. (photo:Ben Pounds )
At the same meeting, the council passed its new 2023-24 budget in a separate, unanimous vote.
The property tax rate remains $2.3136 per $100 of assessed valuation, the same as it was last fiscal year.
The proposed utility rates will be 8.4-percent higher for water bills starting Oct. 1, and the same percentage increase for sewer bills, but starting Oct. 1, 2024.
These increases apply to all business and residential customers.
A city memo stated these increases will help the city qualify for a $25 million state loan to finance a new water treatment plant. It will be off Pumphouse Road.
The current water treatment plant, dating to 1943 , sits on a ridge, and city Public Works Director Patrick Berge has said erosion threatens it.
Earlier this month, City Council member Ellen Smith made a motion to increase social services spending from the original budget proposed by city staff, and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Dodson seconded. She said that the services increase will help people struggling with payments for water and sewer bills.
The amendment raises the city social services spending from $180,145 to $255,145. Funding will come from the city’s General Fund balance.
Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties administers the city’s social services, although interim City Manager Jack Suggs and senior communications specialist Lauren Gray both told The Courier News that the increased social services amount wouldn’t necessarily go to ADFAC programs.
People can sign up for assistance by calling ADFAC’s Household Assistance Program at 865-483-6028 or completing the form on the website adfac.org/request-assistance/.
The current budget totals $34,087,217 in expenditures.
“I think it will serve the citizens of our growing community very well,” Mayor Warren Gooch said of the budget.
The budget gives all city employees at least a 7-percent pay increase. Some people may receive more.
These increases came after city employees told the City Council they had concerns about pay and the rising cost of living last year.
A memo in the agenda stated that the City Council Compensation Committee looked at data from an Alcoa survey as well as data from Knoxville, Maryville, Franklin, Gallatin, Murfreesboro and Brentwood.
“This is a product of a lot of work, which is really admirable on everybody’s part,” Gooch said regarding the committee’s work to come up with the new pay rates.