More furlough days are likely for DeKalb teachers and employees to make up for a last-minute $15 million budget shortfall that’s being blamed on a steeper than expected decline in projected property tax collections.
Less than a month ago, school employees were thanking the Board of Education for canceling furlough days for some employees, such as teachers, and for cutting the number of furlough days for other employees, such as central office administrators, to four.
Wednesday, the district announced that administrative employees would need to take seven days off and teachers would have to take four.
“It’s a blow to morale in the school system,” said David Schutten, president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators, an advocacy group. “There’s this constant uncertainty among employees.”
The reason for the change, said school officials, was last week’s disclosure that the county’s property tax digest dropped significantly more than they expected. The school district built the budget on an assumption that the digest — the value of all taxable property — would decline $2 billion, said Marcus Turk, chief financial officer.
But last week, the tax assessors office revealed a startling analysis: the digest had actually fallen $3 billion.
That translated to a $15 million shortfall for the district.
“We’ve been working with the tax assessors office since the fall to make sure we have relevant, up-to-date, sound information,” Turk said. “When we were planning the budget, a 10 percent decline was factored into our budget, and we thought that was a good number.”
DeKalb County’s top appraiser, Calvin Hicks Jr., said the misunderstanding stemmed from a simple fact: The numbers kept changing and the initial figures were based on the best estimate at the time.
Should he have given the district an inkling that the digest was going to fall around $3 billion — much more than they expected?
“It may very well be that that point should have been clarified further,” Hicks said.
Retired teacher and property owner Rosilind Taylor saw it coming.
She said she knew the furlough days would be reinstated when she opened her property tax bill this week. Her Stone Mountain home, which she’s owned for 26 years, dropped in value from $179,000 to $98,000.
“I knew it was going to be bad news for teachers,” she said. “If you really think about it, if your property value is going down, that’s a signal ... that’s not going to be enough money for schools.”
A DeKalb teacher with a bachelor’s degree and 10 years of experience earns about $45,800 during a 190-day school year, or $3,800 monthly, according to the information on the district’s website.
Based on those figures, four furlough days could equal a loss of around $964 in income. Employees have not received scheduled salary increases in several years.
Other school districts have also had to plan for property tax declines. Cobb County Schools built its 2011-12 budget estimating a reduction of 7.6 percent. Plans call for employees to take two unpaid days off but some employees will get a mid-year salary increase.
Gwinnett adopted a budget for next year anticipating an 8 percent decline or $43.1 million. Employees there will have to take two furlough days, with the exception of school bus drivers and school nutrition workers.
And Fulton County schools anticipates a 7.35 percent drop in tax revenue.
Judi Polacek said the furlough days are especially hard on the district’s lowest paid employees. As a full-time special education paraprofessional with 26 years experience, she earns about $28,000 a year.
“Each year our insurance premiums go up, so I am going in the hole every year.” she said. “I am going backwards.”
About the Author