Until they get a better handle on what cuts in the proposed midyear budget mean for residents, DeKalb County commissioners said Tuesday they aren't sure they can vote as planned next week.
DeKalb cut about $14 million in expenses this spring after CEO Burrell Ellis ordered all departments under his control to find a way to reduce their spending by 5 percent. The cuts were needed to meet the fourth year of declines in countywide property values.
But Tuesday, a week before the commission is scheduled to set the tax rate for the year, several members said they didn't know if those cuts mean a noticeable change for residents — whether they will result in cutting grass along roadways less often or further reducing library hours.
"Each of these reductions should be annotated with how they plan to make these reductions," Commissioner Jeff Rader said. "Right now, there is too much we don't know."
Despite the questions, commissioners said they remain confident they'll be able to hold the tax rate steady at 21.21 mills whenever they do vote.
Some commissioners have said they'd like to cut that rate slightly, for a symbolic countywide tax reduction a year after DeKalb raised the tax rate 26 percent. That would require additional spending cuts, most likely from offices outside the control of the CEO, such as the courts, sheriff and prosecutor's offices.
Those same offices threatened to sue the commissioners and CEO if their funding was cut in 2010, arguing the reductions would violate residents' constitutional rights and safety.
Under the current proposal, owners of the average home in DeKalb would see their tax bills go down by $189 from last year. Because of a jump in collections of a sales tax that offsets property tax bills, property owners will see smaller county bills as long as a home's value went up by 20 percent or less.
Finance director Joel Gottlieb said there have been no reports of services being cut because of the spending reductions. That includes any noticeable changes in key public safety services such as police.
That's because officials gave every department leeway to make the cuts, meaning some saved money by keeping vacancies open and others managed to cut back on supplies or other expenses.
"We are comfortable with the cuts that are being proposed," Gottlieb said.
Still, he said he will scramble to get more detail by next week's planned vote. Any delay in approving midyear spending could delay tax bills.
That in turn would jeopardize the county's ability to pay back its tax anticipation notes, loans common for governments to use in funding operations before tax revenue comes in at the end of the year.
"The board wants more specifics," Commissioner Larry Johnson said. "We don't want a delay. We just want answers."
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