08/27/2001

Budget reallocations - All IPS agencies including MTAS have been instructed by IPS (based on requirements from President Eli Fly) to develop plans for reallocation of revenues. For MTAS, $167,200 must be reallocated. About $96,000 of that is from local funds and the balance is from state funds.

MTAS’ FY02 budget is $3,339,175. Staff salaries and benefits are $2,265,100 or 68% of the total budget. The remaining 32% ($1,074,075) consists of travel, rent, IPS support, equipment, communications, printing, supplies, and etc.

Some MTAS programs (our utility and police consulting efforts) are funded from contracts and/or grants outside the MTAS base account.

I, with input from the MTAS management team, am struggling with what can be cut from our budget to make up $167,200. This is a very serious decision since once the money is reallocated, we must assume that at least the state portion is gone forever. MTAS’ main focus is to provide excellent technical assistance for Tennessee cities. I am carefully evaluating all our efforts and deciding which could be reduced with least impact to our customers. These are painful decisions, and I will keep you informed of the results.

Legal Consultant - We have permission to locate both of our vacant legal consultant positions in Knoxville. We plan to interview five candidates on September 5.

Orientation Design Team - We've appointed a design team to look at our orientation and mentoring programs. The members are: Rick Stokes (chair), David Angerer, Margaret Norris, Dianna Al-Habib, and Becky Smeltzer.

Cost of new travel guidelines - You might be interested to know that we estimate the cost of the new travel guidelines with an increase in the cost of the state rate for hotels and a slight increase in the per diem meal allowance will be about $11,500 for a full year for MTAS. We do travel a lot and it mounts up.