Typical Cost of Service for a Homeowner in White House
The City provides numerous services to our residents. Based on the total budget for each City department, we are able to roughly estimate the cost of services available to each home in the City. The Total Operating Budget does not include capital expenditures. Based on the 2010 U.S. Census, there are 3,828 households in the City of White House.
| Department | Total Operating Budget |
Avg Cost per Household |
| Police | 1,757,969 | 459.24 |
| Fire | 1,281,156 | 334.68 |
| Public Works | 352,093 | 91.98 |
| Parks and Recreation | 749,807 | 195.88 |
| City Court | 77,537 | 20.26 |
| Finance | 370,264 | 96.73 |
| Administration | 645,310 | 168.58 |
| Human Resources | 141,894 | 37.07 |
| Engineering | 52,000 | 13.59 |
| Planning and Codes | 258,486 | 67.53 |
| Library and Museum | 233,458 | 60.99 |
| Total Average Cost | $1,546.53 |
From the above departments, the typical resident receives the following services:
- Indoor and Outdoor Recreation
- Police Patrol
- Police Detectives & Investigation
- Fire Protection
- Fire Inspection Services
- Dispatching of 911 Calls
- Property and Codes Maintenance
- Building Inspections
- Planning Services
- Municipal Court System
- Fire Prevention Education
- 90-Acre Park
- Four miles of Greenway
- Soccer Complex
- Indoor Gym & Auditorium
- Street Paving & Signal Maintenance
- Storm Water Management
- Full Library Services
- Senior Citizen Center
- Economic Development
- Police Crime Prevention Program
All of the above services and many more like these cost the local taxpayers money. The average homeowner pays about $573 per year in property taxes. This represents only 37% of the actual cost of providing services to a home. It takes a combination of business taxes, sales tax collections, and shared taxes coming from the State of Tennessee to allow the City of White House to continue to provide services.
Other services include Wastewater and Sanitation. These services are funded directly through user fees which may not be co-mingled with the revenues and expenses discussed above.
Did you know?
- Street lighting for White House costs $113,000 per year. This represents tax collections from nearly 197 typical homes in White House.
- The City carefully reviews all submissions for plans from each development and tires to ensure the City grows prudently and is not left with greater long-term costs.
- The Police and Fire Departments respond to all medical calls within the City limits. The City's public safety officers are routinely first on the scene and the Fire Department has the capability of stabilizing many medical conditions.
- The City has actually lowered the number of full-time employees per 1,000 citizens in the last five years from 9.7 to 8.3. However, the City continues to provide all of the services promised to the citizenry.
- The Library provides a 6-week summer reading program for children of all ages, on-going story hours, and book clubs.
- The City of White House has one of only fourteen City-funded public libraries in Tennessee.