A year after raising its tax rate 26 percent to make ends meet, DeKalb County will hold the rate steady for 2012.
Commissioners set the rate Tuesday but voiced concerns about offsetting ongoing property-tax losses with across-the-board cuts in services from police to parks -- and whether they can make such reductions again next year.
Officials said there will be no noticeable reduction in services, yet.
"I do not think" the cuts "will have a substantial impact on any of our operations this year," Executive Assistant Richard Stogner said. "I do think when we go through the 2013 budget it will be a different situation."
Commissioner Jeff Rader said, "Revenues will be flat, if not declining, for the next couple of years, yet we are not looking at each department (budget) from a zero-based perspective." He said, "There is still an over-emphasis of maintaining the status quo."
The county stands to lose about $23 million in revenue if Brookhaven votes to incorporate on July 31. City annexations, including a vote in November on expanding Chamblee, could put another $6 million at stake.
Those losses won't hit until the 2013 budget.
Under the $556 million midyear 2012 budget approved Tuesday, owners of homes with the average value in DeKalb, just under $140,000, would see their tax bills go down $179 from last year.
Because of a jump in collections of a sales tax that offsets property tax bills, those bills will be smaller, except for those whose home value went up 20 percent or more.
DeKalb has cut more than $100 million from its budget since 2008. The county cut about $14 million in expenses this spring after CEO Burrell Ellis ordered all departments under his control to reduce their spending by 5 percent.
The cuts were a response to the fourth year of declines in countywide property values. The slide this year was 9 percent.
Similar declines in other metro Atlanta counties have prompted similar spending cuts and previous tax hikes. Gwinnett and Cobb are expected to hold their tax rates steady when they vote this month on their budgets.
Property owners in the unincorporated area of south Fulton, meanwhile, will see a 1.5-mill increase in their tax rate if the commission there votes as expected later this week.
DeKalb tax rate: $21.21 per thousand dollars of assessed value. After a local sales tax credit is applied, the rate drops to $10.12.
The average home value in 2011 was $156,900. County taxes were $666.31.
The average home value in 2012 was $139,300. County taxes are $487.06.
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