ELIZABETHTON â Despite a sharply divided disagreement over funding for the Elizabethton/Carter County Animal Shelter on Monday evening, it was mostly smooth sailing for the Carter County Commission in passing a new budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year. The commissioners also passed the certified tax rate of $2.03. That is down from the $2.47 rate passed by the commission last year, before the latest countywide assessment of property but determined by the state comptrollerâs office to bring in the same amount of property tax revenue.
The only serious controversy during the passage of the new budget was an attempt to reduce the countyâs contribution to the animal shelter that is jointly operated by the city and the county. The total contribution to the shelter by the city, county and other means in 2020-21 was $492,000. Several commissioners discussed reducing the total amount to $400,000 by reducing the countyâs share, but were not able to gather the 13 votes needed