Chattanooga City Council/Hamilton County Commission joint budget hearing -- May 8, 2008	- Download MP3-

The Hamilton County Commission and Chattanooga City Council met Thursday for joint budget hearings at the county courthouse. The two bodies heard from representatives of about 20 agencies about their 2008-2009 fiscal year budgets.

* LIBRARY: The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library asked the county and city for about $1.5 million more in operations funding and a little more than $6 million in capital funds. The operations funding would allow branches that had to close for an extra day this January to re-open, a salary increase and for more books. The capital funds would in part go toward new branches in Soddy-Daisy and East Brainerd.

* CARTA: Burdened by increased fuel costs, the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority is requesting an additional $474,994, or roughly 13 percent, from the city for the next fiscal year and another $118,700 from the county. The added county request is almost 120 percent more than what the county gave CARTA for the current fiscal year. CARTA’s requested fuel budget alone is up roughly 50 percent over last year, from $1,099,000 received in the current fiscal year to $1,655,000 sought for the new fiscal year.

* ENTERPRISE SOUTH: The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce was seeking about $140,000 more from the county and city for the Enterprise South industrial park. Much of that extra funding would go toward salaries, though some would go toward buying new equipment like a dump truck and a mower. The Chamber itself asked for $150,000 for its own operations.

* REGIONAL PLANNING AGENCY: The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency wants an extra $218,805 from the county and another $196,183 from the city. RPA head Barry Bennett said the agency already has been working with a bare-bones budget. “We’re doing more with fewer resources and less staff,” he said.

— Compiled by staff writers Matt Wilson and Michael Davis