Every department in DeKalb County government was supposed to cut spending by at least 5 percent next year, so that interim CEO Lee May would have the cash to hire 160 cops and 100 firefighters as part of a pledge to boost public safety.
But according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday, most departments are asking for more money in the upcoming year — to the tune of $79 million more than this year’s $560 million spending plan. That gives May and county finance officials just three months to make massive cuts on their own to fulfill his promise.
“That is still two months more than we have typically had to see these figures,” May said. “We are being transparent early, so we can expose how we’ve been operating and show the kinds of tough decisions we are going to be making.”
May has warned that the county could pull back or cut some services to pay for his ambitious plan to hire 480 police officers and 300 firefighters over the next three years.
But, he also has not made any promises that taxes won’t go up, at least for some residents.
Countywide, the property values that set the tax rate should be stable in 2014, according to working projections the county released Thursday.
But values in the unincorporated area, about 70 percent of the county, are projected to dip about two percent.
Because the funding of county police is primarily the responsibility of the unincorporated area — most cities provide their own service and contract for only some advanced protections — those residents could pay more next year for police, even if the overall tax rate remains unchanged.
It’s still too early in the budget process to tell if that will happen and how much it would cost the average homeowner.
May said he is working to maintain tax rates but is also committed to the public safety program, which is designed to halt the hemorrhage of those workers. Those losses have left the county police department at 83 percent capacity and the fire department running at just 76 percent of its authorized force.
The budget requests released Thursday, as part of a daylong budget retreat for May and the DeKalb County Commission, wouldn’t allow for the extra $15 million needed to fill those holes.
However, most of the requests were made at the tail end of suspended CEO Burrell Ellis’ tenure this summer, a month before May ordered the 5 percent spending reduction. Some departments may have since made plans to cut.
And, in some cases, departments will be unable to cut. The amount of high-profile court cases, for instance, have driven up costs in the Superior Court Clerk’s office.
The CEO’s own budget will climb by at least $250,000 to reflect that the county must pay salaries to both May as the interim chief and Ellis as he fights a 15-count indictment. Ellis is accused of illegally pressuring contractors into giving him campaign contributions.
“Our job will be to review each department’s submission, in the context of our goal, and fund them accordingly,” said Zachary Williams, the county’s chief operating officer, who is helping to lead the budget process. “There will obviously be a lot of work to be done.”
About the Author
