Fulton court officials fear deep cuts

By D.L. Bennett

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Fulton County court officers declared "an economic state of emergency" Wednesday in reaction to a county budget for 2010 that proposes up to $53.2 million in cuts to court operations.

Court officials said they could lose as many as 1,000 employees. Services would be severely impacted, they warned.

"These are impacts we can't withstand and continue to operate as we are," said Dee Downs, chief Superior Court judge. "We are preparing to operate differently."

In all, the $517.6 million budget proposal pares back spending by $148.2 million. The budget was released Monday. Commissioners get their first chance to debate it Thursday.

The cuts to most departments, including the district attorney, Superior and State court judges, sheriff's office, court clerks and other related agencies, come in at about 25 percent. Officials said they can't find massive savings without massive layoffs since about 80 percent of their spending is for personnel.

"Such a loss of employees would be disastrous," said Paul Howard, Fulton's district attorney. "We all realize we have much work to do. We can't do that if we lose 425 to 980 employees."

The issues raised by court employees are the beginning of what's likely to be a fierce debate in Fulton and other governments as they react to revenue losses from the recession.

Atlanta raised taxes last year. So did Clayton County. Gwinnett's debating a tax increase now.

The Fulton budget proposal lays out multiple options for resolving the county's financial issues for 2010. The budget proposal includes what nearly $150 million in direct service cuts might mean.

However, it recommends smaller cuts of about $86 million. The other savings proposed would come from refinancing bonds, 10 furlough days and other means. That option would still likely mean hundreds of county employees would be let go.

Under that option, the court system's cuts could be closer to $25 million. At that number, even with $70,000 in salary and benefits for the average court employee, court officers would still need to cut about 300 employees.

Downs and Howard said Wednesday that so far they aren't considering legal action to try to force commissioners to fully fund their operations in 2010. They are also looking for cost cutting measures that don't mean layoffs.

"We are preparing to tighten our belts as tight as we can," Downs said.

Zachary Williams, county manager, said late Monday that specific cuts won't begin to be clear until the board of commissioners agrees which direction to take. Decisions, he said, would be based on services Fulton is mandated to perform, then commission priorities.

And, while the budget doesn't propose one, a property tax increase is always possible.

Fulton gets about $35 million from each mill of taxes. At that rate, the county would need about 4 mills to avoid any cuts. The county also saves about $800,000 a day from any furlough day forced on employees.

The budget also builds in a 14.5 percent decline in property tax collections based on residential values falling 10 percent and a 20 percent slide in commercial properties. Finance officials also built in an 88 percent collection rate, which is about 10 percent less than the county collects during better times.