DeKalb approves budget with no tax increase

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County residents will not have to pay any extra property taxes and will still have essential services, despite a $84 million deficit.

The County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $564.9 million budget for this year with no property tax increase.

“Your garbage will get picked up. Your water will get turned on. Police and fire will still come when you call 911,” Commissioner Elaine Boyer said. “The essential services will still be funded.”

Commissioners rejected CEO Burrell Ellis’ proposed budget, which included a 1.08-mill tax increase -- about $36 extra a year per household. The commission’s approval includes about $19 million more in cuts from Ellis’ budget.

Although taxes won’t be raised, residents will see the toll of the county’s $84 million deficit elsewhere. An estimated loss of more than $1 billion in property tax value and $15 million in sales tax revenue led to the deficit.

Ellis said the commission is just postponing the inevitable, and taxes will likely have to be raised in June to make up for revenue declines.

“It’s almost impossible to balance a budget without cuts in some services,” Ellis said. “I think ultimately we are going to have to adjust our millage rate.”

The budget approved Tuesday includes unpaid holidays for the remainder of 2010 and no take-home vehicles for employees, which police say will increase response times.

Sheriff Thomas Brown said he will run out of overtime to staff the jail at the end of July under his approved budget, which includes a $900,000 cut. The sheriff said his department -- which has 238 deputies and 400 detention officers -- is understaffed by 62 employees, forcing him to rely on overtime to secure the jail and courts.

If the sheriff doesn’t get more money by July, his only option will be to sue the county, he said.

“You can’t tell a constitutional officer he can’t do his constitutional duties,” Brown said.

With a 13 percent cut, the county’s Board of Health will be forced to slash some services and possibly some jobs.

“This is the largest cut in the Board of Health’s history,” director Dr. S. Elizabeth Ford told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We would consider public health a first-responder, but they didn’t see it that way. With a cut that size, it’s going to be dramatic.”

Ford said services such as family planning, HIV screening and immunizations likely will be offered only several days a week instead of daily at the county’s six health facilities.

Library openings may be delayed, and the senior centers won’t have as many programs, Commissioner Jeff Rader said.

And that’s just the beginning. More cuts will have to be made before the commission sets the tax rate in June, Commissioner Lee May said.

The approved budget does not include an anticipated 6.7 percent decline in property values, which will bring the deficit to $100 million. Commissioners said the CEO did not get those financial figures to them in time for the budget proposal. Residents can still appeal their property values, so the deficit could be even worse. Ellis' budget also did not take the 6.7 percent decline into account.

“We are possibly looking at an additional $20 million we are short in revenues,” May said.

Property taxes cover two-thirds of the county’s operating expenses.

Commissioners said they want to see Ellis make more cuts before he talks about tax increases, including renegotiating large county contracts, outsourcing county services and reducing staff.

At 8,300 employees, DeKalb has more employees than any other county in Georgia or the city of Atlanta, according to Rader.

While the commission made deep cuts Tuesday, no police officers or firefighters will lose their jobs, May said. The CEO had threatened that public safety employees would be laid off if a tax increase wasn’t approved.

The only layoffs in the approved budget are about 30 employees in the development department, which will be abolished and outsourced to a contractor. Some of those employees will be hired by the contractor, Rader said.

But more workers could lose their jobs if not enough employees sign up for an early retirement package. The commission said it needs about 550 employees to retire by April 15 or it will have to start laying off workers.

Police said they are pleased none of their officers will lose their jobs, but the unpaid holidays will cause officers to lose thousands of dollars each year and hurt morale.

Master Police Officer Sabrina Dorsey told commissioners that she works 20-30 hours a week on extra jobs in addition to her police work to help pay her bills.

“I’m barely making ends meet right now,” said Dorsey, a Tucker mother of two. “If you reduce our salary, I don’t know what more I can do to make ends meet.”

The CEO and commissioners said they also plan to cut their own salaries by seven days -- the number of unpaid holidays.

The Rev. Patricia Matthews told commissioners she is willing to pay more in taxes for public safety.

“Today I stand for the fact that it is important that the police officers have a payday and those who come to put out the fires have a payday, and those who protect the jail have a payday,” she told commissioners. “If that means a sacrifice, I’m willing to do that.”

Commissioners also voted to use money from the Homestead Option Sales Tax to help offset the deficit, meaning that several infrastructure projects will get put off. Projects delayed include sidewalks on Flat Shoals Road, the Stone Mountain-Lithonia Road bike path and several road resurfacings.