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The Claiborne County Commission unanimously approved the second reading of a resolution to remove the $25 wheel tax going toward debt service for the construction of the Claiborne County Justice Center during their November meeting last week. That wheel tax will be repealed after December.

“We will have enough money saved up so we can end this next month,” Commissioner Mitchell Cosby said in making the motion to repeal the wheel tax. “Like I said last month, this gives me great pleasure to make a motion ending this wheel tax.”

The commission also approved a resolution reappointing members of the Budget Committee. The committee will include First District Commissioner Zachary Bunch, Second District Commissioner Haley Barker, Third District Commissioner Tim Shrout,  Fourth District Commissioner Anthony Rowe, Fifth District Commissioner Mitchell Cosby, Sixth District Commissioner Rosemary Barnett, Seventh District Commissioner Sherry McCreary, Eighth District Commissioner Quinton Rogers, and Ninth District Commissioner Dustin Wilson.

Cosby and McCreary presented the resolution to the commission and it was approved unanimously.

“We wanted to get started early because everybody knows the problems we had with our budget last year,” Cosby said. “Everybody is the same except in the Fourth District Zach Mullins is going off and we’re putting Anthony Rowe on it. Zach is okay with that.”

Another resolution passed to release a $1200 payment to Howard Beeler. The $1200 represents 10% of the construction bond for JB Street that was held in the form of a maintenance bond for one year to ensure the roadway is free of defects.

The commission also approved a resolution requesting the 114th General Assembly of the State of Tennessee to allocate one half of the real estate transfer tax to the county where the tax was collected. Commissioner Quinton Rogers presented this resolution and made the motion.

County Mayor Joe Brooks explained that Claiborne is joining 94 other counties in asking for the change.

“During our fall conference the TCSA took this up as a piece of legislation for all 95 counties. If this were in place this year it would have equaled an additional 4.12 pennies in property tax revenue for the county and we would not have had to raise taxes,” Brooks said.

The state currently imposes a 37 cents per $100 tax on property transfers. Brooks said the state allocates half of that revenue into its general fund balance and the other half goes for different programs.

“As you all know the counties are looking for different sources of revenue and we’re largely dependent on just property tax revenue,” Brooks said. “Since this is a function of property, we feel this is a good ask for us since half of what the state is getting is just going into their rainy day fund. We’d like it to come back to the county so we can use it for our purposes.”

If the General Assembly were to approve the change, Brooks said it would likely be fiscal year 2026 before the county saw the additional revenue.

Also approved by the commission were resolutions for:

— changing the name of the library from the Barbara Reynolds Carr Memorial Library to the Claiborne County Public Library;

— amending the budget for the Board of Education and Family Justice Center to reflect new revenue;

— a memorandum of understanding with the Health Department to allow ARPA funds to pass through the county.