Maybe DeKalb County department heads didn’t get the memo.
Even though political leaders have warned the county faces a $40 million shortfall in next year’s budget from the creation of Brookhaven and a pending annexation, budget requests are up – way up.
Department heads submitted wish lists last week totaling $601 million. That’s $44 million more than this year’s budget and almost $100 million more than the county’s worst-case scenario for 2013, though chief executive Burrell Ellis said he is not concerned.
“Saying it’s $100 million over our expectations assumes everything will stay the same from last year, and I am not willing to commit to that,” Ellis said. “What we are doing for the first time is determining the essential services and the exact cost of that. It is priority driven.”
It also is driven by a new sense of unity between Ellis, tasked with formulating a budget every year, and county commissioners, who have the final vote on spending.
That divided setup has created friction for years, especially as the county’s property values plunged by 25 percent since 2008.
This year, though, both are taking aim at the county’s constitutional offices, elected posts not under direct county control such as the sheriff or courts.
The reason: DeKalb has cut its tax funds budget – which pays for things like parks, police and libraries – by 12 percent since 2008.
The budgets of the constitutional offices, though, have all gone up in that same five-year span. Spending in DeKalb’s juvenile court jumped 63 percent, and went up 16 percent in the solicitor’s office.
Commissioner Jeff Rader has suggested the county consider hiring outside experts to review those budgets and suggest cuts. That, rather than ordering a dollar or percent reduction, would be easier to defend if the officials argue their constitutional duties are being threatened.
“Our experience over the past four years has not shown our constitutional officers being willing to cut their budgets as much or quickly as our revenues have been eroded,” Rader said. “We need to have a defense if we cut their budget.”
Those decisions are several weeks off. Starting this week, department heads must meet with finance officials to go through their budget requests and explain their needs.
County leaders also want offices in the same groups – such as public safety, administration or public works – to come up with ways to share services and further reduce costs.
But with such large requests coming in, those sorts of cuts may not go deep enough to make ends meet. The grim possibility of layoffs remains, especially as more commissioners speak out against any tax hike, said Commissioner Lee May, who heads the board’s budget committee.
“I disregard what the departments request,” May said. “The reality is, we have a $40 million gap. We can’t get beyond the fact we need to do additional reductions in staffing levels. We have to focus very heavily on the spending side.”
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