City will tighten belt, wait out new fiscal year, as tax revenue is low
By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Putnam Pit editor
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Cookeville City Manger Jim Shipley says a $200,000 shortfall in tax receipts means belt tightening in city hall until the fiscal year ends June 30.Shipley said the city may look at leaving some vacant jobs unfilled and cutting back on first aid supplies which have grown to the size of a small pharmacy.
But the cutbacks will not affect a pair of Cookeville police officers assigned to the controversial 13th Judicial District Drug Task Force. Those two officers will continue to draw an extra couple of hundred dollars every two weeks from overtime. The county still owes Cookeville about $25,000 in past overtime. The city is supposed to be reimbursed for overtime under the terms of an unwritten agreement among the communities the task force serves. Some of the other communities do not get reimbursed, Shipley acknowledged.
Since former Drug Task Force Director Bob Terry became Cookeville police chief last fall, the city has received two checks for about $6,400, but the city paid out $9,000 during the same period for new task force overtime.
Terry has arranged with City Clerk Stephanie Miller to keep the total due from growing by not billing the task force again until they have money from seized property to pay the salaries.
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