Red Bank presents ‘belt tightening’ measures in wake of tax mishap

RED BANK, Tenn. (WDEF)-The city of Red Bank unveiled a plan to deal with a nearly million dollar budget shortfall.

Red Bank financial officials say now is the time for  ‘Belt Tightening.”

This is after the tax snafu following this year’s appraisals, which saw the average value of a Hamilton County home rise by 57 percent.

However, certified tax rates from 2021 were applied to Red Bank homeowners, which were not the rates from 2025.

This led to the shortfall for the city of Red Bank, which is something that has led to back and forth between Red Bank officials and Hamilton County Property Assessor Marty Haynes.

The city claims this was solely the fault of the county’s assessor office, while Haynes has said that Red Bank signed off on the mistaken rate to the state.

This is a tension still being expressed by Red Bank officials, especially in the wake of the Hamilton County Commission voting to not give them a loan.

Council member Hayes Wilkinson said, “I would just like to express the sentiment that I hate that we have to have this conversation to begin with through no fault of our own. I don’t want us to own that in any way. To take responsibility for future due diligence, but this is a pretty frustrating situation.”

In response, the city of Red Bank is planning to institute a hiring freeze across all departments, while identifying cuts across all departments.

This includes freezing pay raises for Red Bank Fire and Police, and making some full time positions part time.

Also several capital projects, including a new park next to City Hall, are being deferred, in a long line of tough decisions for Red Bank.

Council member Hollie Berry said, “Nothing is non-essential in Red Bank so this is very difficult.”

The city plans to implement these changes in January.