Maintenance of Effort

Tennessee Code Annotated requires certain financial mandates for local governments.  Financial mandates are often referred to as “maintenance of effort” requirements. These requirements are either on local revenues or on the expenditure budget.  We see these mandates for education, public safety, highways, and election commission. Maintenance of effort requirements prevent local governments from substituting state (or federal) funds for local revenues as state (or federal) funding increases. The rationale is to ensure that the additional funds provided are used for improvements or inflation, not simply to maintain spending levels previously supported by local revenue.

While not technically a maintenance of effort requirement, another financial mandate that must be considered when budgeting is the statutory minimum staffing level for the assessor's office.  For more information, see Deputies and Assistants-Assessor of Property.