The Disgruntled Republican in Nashville: More budget hearings: Clerk and Master, Circuit Court Clerk, ITS,

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Clerk and Master's presentation is only 3:57 minutes long. The Clerk and Master's facebook page only has nine friends at this time. Delinquent tax collections are up. Here is the video.

The Circuit Court Clerk budget is presented by Richard Rooker, the Circuit Court Clerk. People can now pay fines online. The office is being more aggressive in collected fines and is more user friendly. Here is the video. The 2% cut would result in the loss of one full time employee plus some and would result in a decline in revenue collections. The number of tickets being written is way down resulting in loss of revenue from previous years. Here is the video.

Information Technology Services budget: This department reports it can live with the proposed 2% cut without a drastic reduction in services. This department produces all of the productions on the Metro Government Cable channel and produces the Metro YouTube videos and related information services. Here is the video.

Is this an essential government service? I would suggest this department sell advertising to help fund their service and rely on volunteers to do some of the work of this department. Maybe they could form a partnership with a University to use interns to produce the YouTube videos and man the cameras at the meetings they cover. While I watch the Government Channel and Metro YouTube videos, I think this department should be low priority for funding. Rather than raise taxes, this may be a luxury we cannot afford.

Office of Internal Audit Budget Hearing: A 2% decrease would not devastate the department. Here is the video.

More budget hearings that I have not yet reviewed can be found at these links.
State Trial Courts Budget Hearing
Social Services Budget Hearing
Nashville Career Advancement Center Budget Hearing
Hospital Authority Budget Hearing
Metro Action Commission Budget Hearing