Fulton County proposes property tax increase for jail improvements
Fulton County’s chief financial officer presented commissioners Wednesday with a proposed budget that includes a tax increase to improve deplorable conditions at the county jail, which is the subject of a legal agreement called a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Property taxes would increase by 0.39 mills, or 39 cents for every $1,000 in assessed property value. That would cost the owner of a $400,000 home about $156.
The tax hike would raise almost $32 million next year for consent decree expenses the County Commission approves, described in the budget proposal as “contractual and operational items.”
An outline of those expenses was not immediately available, a county spokesperson said.
“To date, all decree compliance related costs are still being vetted and have not been determined, but as costs accelerate from partial year to full year recurring implementation, this number is expected to grow,” the budget proposal states. “Additional costs will be presented to the Board for consideration when available.”
The proposed budget assumes a separate general fund tax rate that would remain flat next year at 8.87 mills.
All department and agency budgets would be reduced by 1% to fund more staffing at the jail, according to the proposal.
The county’s proposed budget for next year totals $1.4 billion, an overall increase of almost $11 million from this year’s budget.
The jail came under federal oversight earlier this year after a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found conditions there were “abhorrent” and unconstitutional.
County Manager Dick Anderson said the separate tax was proposed to isolate consent decree costs from the rest of the operating budget, but acknowledged the impact to taxpayers would be the same. The property tax rate would increase by more than 4%.
Anderson said consent decree costs were being vetted with advice from the county attorney and the court-appointed monitor overseeing the agreement. Reserves were used to fund some of the expenses this year, he said.
Some commissioners complained the proposal was confusing.
“I cannot vote for a budget that I cannot confidently explain to the taxpayers that fund it,” Commissioner Mo Ivory said.
When the County Commission considered a 1-mill increase this summer, citing consent decree costs, they were met with strong public opposition.
“We have to understand that and realize that that’s where our citizens are,” said Vice Chair Bob Ellis, noting that overall expenditures were increasing by 12%. “I really think we need to look at it and see how we can get that total millage rate assumption to a flat number.”
Veteran grant program rejected
The commission rejected a push by three members to reinstate a $1 million grant program to benefit veterans that was cut from this year’s budget.
Commissioners Marvin Arrington Jr., who created the Veterans Empowerment Commission three years ago, Dana Barrett and Ivory have between them tried unsuccessfully to restore funding six times this year.
The three commissioners make up the minority faction of the seven-member Fulton County Board of Commissioners.
The county gave the Veterans Empowerment Commission $1 million annually in 2022, 2023 and last year to distribute in grants to organizations that serve veterans. County commissioners appointed representatives to the veterans’ commission
The County Commission’s two Republicans on Wednesday raised questions about whether the money was being spent effectively and said they wanted to hear more about needs the federal and state governments were not meeting.
The county’s community services program already gives money to social services organizations that support veterans, Ellis said. He and Commissioner Bridget Thorne said the Veterans’ Community Services Grant Program did not seem to be well-organized.
“These are all good folks on this commission,” Ellis said. “We have a lot of different worthwhile types of things that we can consider funding. We have a lot of things that we need to turn down.”
Ellis and Thorne voted against the resolution to restore the funding next year and annually thereafter. Chairman Robb Pitts abstained, and Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman was absent.
The Rev. Eldson McGhee, a Vietnam War veteran and chairman of the Veterans Empowerment Commission, said at a news conference Tuesday the program helped more than 4,700 veterans in Fulton County during the three years it was funded. About 50,000 veterans live in Fulton County, he said.
“I walk the streets of my hometown and I watch the mental illness that’s being untreated,” McGhee said. “I watch the economic deprivation that’s not being met.”
Organizations won grants to help with veterans’ housing, mental health support, job placement and case management, Ivory said.
The resolution’s supporters said the need was obvious.
“It’s abundantly clear that there are veterans who are homeless and there are veterans who cannot find stable housing and there are veterans who are food insecure and hungry and there are veterans who need wraparound and support services for behavioral health,” Barrett said. “To say that this is a program that we don’t know how they’re going to spend the money is baffling to me.
“This is a grant program.”
Reparations Task Force needs funding
Members of the Fulton County Reparations Task Force also said they would need an unspecified amount of additional funding to continue.
The task force presented findings to the County Commission on Wednesday but has yet to develop recommendations.
They were accompanied by Elon Butts Osby, granddaughter of William Bagley, the Black businessman for whom Bagley Park was named after he was expelled from Forsyth County in the 1912 racial cleansing there.
The Fulton task force is the first reparations committee in the former Confederacy.
Fulton is the most populous county in Georgia. Gwinnett, the second most populous, on Tuesday proposed a slightly reduced budget for the first time in years.
“Just like our residents and businesses, the County has been grappling with the impact of inflation and other economic uncertainties,” Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson said in a news release. “Our departments worked hard to identify areas where we can reduce spending to make up for the rising cost of goods and services.”
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