Clayton commissioners choice? Furloughs or higher taxes

Clayton County commissioners faced a horde of riled-up employees Tuesday who demanded that the county not furlough to balance its budget. Now the officials have to decide if they want to face angry taxpayers instead.

The commission may have to decide whether to raise taxes or cut employee hours by a half-day a week to make up for a shortfall in its $160 million budget.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, with more than 300 people overflowing from the commission chamber to the hallways, the speakers from the crowd clearly favored raising taxes over cutting services, especially public safety.

“I ask you to consider raising my property taxes, our property taxes … and don’t lay off or furlough anybody,” said David Clark, an engineer with Southern Co. “Lower property taxes are not necessarily something to be proud of. Neighboring counties have raised their rates over the years, and while they are pinching pennies now, they are not in as dire straits as Clayton County.”

County officials said Clayton County property taxes are about two mills lower than surrounding counties. Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell, who said Tuesday night he opposed furloughs, said that raising the property taxes two mills would bring in nearly $16 million.

The overflow crowd Tuesday was made up largely of county employees and citizens who had turned out to support not furloughing public safety employees — so whether its sentiment in favor of higher taxes reflected the majority of the county was not clear. The five-member commission is to vote next week on the fiscal 2010 budget.

Kliff Grimes, who represents a law enforcement union, says that the commissioners will end up with angry citizens if the county furloughs 280 law officers. “That is a lot of man-hours for the citizens to lose,” he said before the meeting. “The commissioners are being bombarded by calls from the public — and we put this information out to the public.”

Grimes suggested that the county could make up for the budget shortfall by increasing fines and the cost for county permits and licenses. “Of course that doesn’t go over too big with the public either,” he said.

Four commissioners put out a statement Monday saying they would oppose furloughs after getting calls from citizens concerned about public safety.

Bell, who issued a budget that calls for a 14 percent cut in the money budgeted for personnel, said the county must mandate furloughs for its 2,042 employees or raise taxes.

Bell said the tax digest had decreased by 3.6 percent, and the proposed budget for next fiscal year is $9.6 million less than the current budget.