Crossville Finance Director Nathan Clouse told the Crossville City Council Tuesday the upcoming fiscal year budget starts in good shape.
Clouse said the 2025-2026 budget does have raises built in for all departments. Clouse said officials have looked closely at all expenditures.
“We anticipated last year $35 million in expenditures,” Clouse said. “Even with the raises for this year, it didn’t increase a whole lot. We cut a lot of expenses out that have been unused or were actually overestimated.”
Clouse said he is anticipating the general fund to have a $240,000 surplus in the budget. Mayor RJ Crawford said he was pleased to see where things stand after getting the first look at the budget.
“For those that don’t know normally we start at a deficit and work to a profit every year so this is great to start in a profit,” Crawford said.
Clouse said utility departments are unique as they have to cover all of their expenses and depreciation with revenue. Clouse said he does have concerns for the Catoosa Utility Department, Water Department, and Sewer Department in regard to interest income.
“Part of that revenue is interest,” Clouse said. “We have been blessed the last few years to have high interest rates on our savings. That has dropped some this year and I know they are talking about more interest rate drops coming up. I have dropped it $60,000 for Catoosa already but if those interest rates continue to drop, as you can see just from last year it’s $229,000 we almost dropped $30,000 this year. So if it drops anymore it could have an impact on our bottom line.”
Clouse said the city is down $200,000 in interest from last year and expects to see a similar drop again this year. Clouse said he has had to increase depreciation by almost $500,000 more than what the depreciation was last year due to capital projects. However, Clouse said the budget shows the Catoosa Utility Department having a $100,000 surplus with the Water and Sewer Departments showing a smaller amount of surplus.
Clouse said donations to outside agencies have remained the same for now and total up to $2.5 million.
