Interim DeKalb County CEO Lee May is proposing a budget that gives 4 percent raises to thousands of government employees who didn't previously receive a pay bump.
The pay increases are designed to make DeKalb's government more competitive with other Atlanta-area jurisdictions, many of which compensate their employees better, according to a study conducted for the county.
These raises would go to more than 3,000 employees, including sheriff's deputies, librarians, prosecutors and clerks. The DeKalb Commission already approved raises in February for about 2,800 police, fire, 911, sanitation and watershed employees.
May sent his budget recommendation Tuesday to the DeKalb Commission, which will vote on it next month.
“In order to be successful and deliver services, we need our people to be well positioned and compensated,” May said. “They’ve gone through some tough times in the last seven or eight years since the Great Recession.”
The county’s property tax rates would remain unchanged after the commission approved a small tax cut last year.
In all, the pay raises would cost taxpayers $11.4 million this year. The county would also create new pay ranges, and employees earning less than the minimum for their job would have their pay adjusted upward. The government is also implementing a pay-for-performance system that allows a clearer path for employees to be promoted.
The $1.38 billion midyear budget recommendation is $57 million, or 4.4 percent, higher than the spending plan the DeKalb Commission passed in February.
May also is proposing:
- $1.7 million to fund fire alarm upgrades at the DeKalb Jail
- $802,000 for road paving, drainage and staffing
- $768,648 for expanding services offered by the county's 311 citizen help line
- $514,000 for building maintenance and repairs
- $491,927 for library positions and to restore library hours
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