The Greeneville Sun has learned that, as the result of a misunderstanding by the reporter, a news story on Page A-5 of the Thursday, May 8, issue of the newspaper -- as well as the story's headline and sub-headline -- left an incorrect impression about planning for the 2008-09 Greene County budget.

The news story dealt with a budget-related meeting of the Greene County Commission's Budget & Finance Committee on Wednesday, May 7.

The newspaper error specifically concerned the issue of possible wage increases for county employees in the coming budget year.

The story was headlined: "County Budget Will Be Late, Likely With No Pay Raises." A secondary headline stated: "Budget Director Is Told To Draft New Plan With No Wage Increases."

The secondary headline and the news article itself incorrectly stated that the Greene County Commission's Budget & Finance Committee had directed County Budget Director David Lawing to prepare a new draft budget without including any pay increases for county employees.

The article and the related headlines should have said that the committee directed Lawing to prepare a new draft of the 2008-09 county budget based on raising county employees' pay by 2.3 percent, "as a baseline for further discussion."

This was the background:

The first version of the draft 2008-09 county budget, which the committee has been working with since April, included proposed pay raises for county employees based on the larger amount of two separate methods of calculation:

1) either a 2.3 percent increase from current pay levels, or

2) a figure designed to "close the gap" by 40 percent between what employees are currently paid and what the county pay scale says they would be making if the county pay scale was fully implemented.

In preparing the first draft of the 2008-09 budget for consideration by the Budget & Finance Committee, Lawing included the larger of these two calculations when the amounts were different.

At the meeting on Wednesday, though, the committee directed Lawing to remove the 40 percent "gap-closing" increases from consideration, since the committee now believes it is unlikely that the county's revenues in the coming budget year will be enough to support "gap-closing" wage hikes.

At the meeting, the committee discussed various factors that are expected to have a negative impact on the county budget in the coming year.

The reporter covering the meeting for the Sun incorrectly interpreted this discussion as meaning that any pay raises are unlikely-- and incorrectly attributed that conclusion to the committee.

The newspaper regrets the misinterpretation, and the resulting mistake in reporting the instructions that the committee gave County Budget Director Lawing.