State agency to supervise West Tennessee town’s finances

MASON, Tenn. — A local town is having a financial disagreement with a state agency.

John Dunn, with the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, says they’ve noticed the town of Mason is spending more money than what is being brought in, causing a large deficit in their general fund.

City leaders say they have a different point of view on the issue.

“What they’ve been doing is borrowing money from their water and sewer funds to supplement their general government operations. So now they owe their water and sewer funds about $590,000 or so,” Dunn said.

Vice Mayor of Mason, Virginia Rivers says the Comptroller’s Office is looking at past audits.

“No one has actually came to us and asked us what our figures are. Where are we now? Where we stand now is not what he’s showing everybody,” Rivers said.

Dunn says the town has been through significant events affecting their revenue.

“One was the closure of the prison there in the town of Mason, which resulted in the loss of about 543 members of its population and also a significant amount of revenue to the town,” Dunn said.

Rivers says while this is true, the town still gets some revenue.

“They’re still paying bills. It’s just not the amount that they had when they had the prisoners there,” Rivers said.

Dunn says the Comptroller’s Office will now enhance their supervision over the town’s finances.

“Mason will start to send us weekly spending requests. We’ll review the bank accounts, see if the money is available, take a look at their budget and make sure the appropriate line item is in the budget,” Dunn said.

He also says this is to help Mason in the future.

“What we hope is that this ultimately results in a stronger Mason that is capable of balancing its budget and operating on that balanced budget,” Dunn said.

Rivers says this supervision is not necessary.

“We’re not in default on nothing. So we’ve been managing all this time, plus paying back those bills that was due. Those notes and bills that were due before we came in, we’ve even paid some off,” Rivers said.

She also says the local leaders should be allowed to control the town’s finances.

“Let us handle it. Give us the opportunity to show our own constituents that we can handle what’s before us. Don’t treat us like we don’t have any sense,” Rivers said.

Dunn says this supervision will go into effect the week of March 28.

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