Dozens of county workers could lose their jobs and south Fulton residents could face an even higher tax rate, a first draft of next year’s Fulton County budget revealed Wednesday.
The county also would dip into reserves by $77.7 million, depleting the fund by 65 percent, to balance the budget. Forty-one filled positions, 25 of them from the 911 system, would be eliminated.
A grim outlook, however, is typical when Fulton’s finance managers first address revenue projections and expenses, and how to close the gap. The proposed $597.5 million budget likely will go through major revisions before commissioners approve a final version in late January.
In past years, the budget outlook has turned more positive once total revenues were determined, but this year could be different with property taxes still plummeting after the past real estate failure. General fund revenues are projected at $519.8 million compared to the $528.3 million expected to come in this year.
Chairman John Eaves, who drew up the proposal with Finance Director Patrick O’Connor and County Manager Zachary Williams, stressed that it’s early in the process and too soon to say whether layoffs or furloughs will happen.
“An easy solution could have been raising the [countywide] millage rate, but we chose not to,” Eaves said.
While he doubts any workers will be cut, south Fulton Commissioner William “Bill” Edwards said the higher tax rate for unincorporated county residents will probably hold true.
The South Fulton Special Services District, funded through an extra property tax rate to pay for municipal-type services such as police, fire, parks and planning, faces a shortfall of $7 million.
“Things aren’t like they used to be,” Edwards said. “People understand that they want services in south Fulton, and they’re going to have to pay for them.”
The commission voted in July to boost the extra tax rate by 0.810, raising it to 8.969 mills, which translates to about $450 on a $200,000 home.
The proposed budget would kick the rate up another 1.5 mills to 10.469, which is about $525 on a $200,000 home. At that level, south Fulton’s extra rate would have more than doubled since Sandy Springs, Johns Creek and Milton incorporated and left the special services district starting in 2005.
As for shedding positions, the negative projections have become so routine that the head of the local employees’ union isn’t concerned about the proposal.
“We just hope they will continue to do what they’ve always done in the past,” said Greg Fann, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We’re going to be lobbying them, as we did today, to keep our workers gainfully employed.”
Two years ago, the commission discussed hundreds of layoffs while drafting the 2010 budget. Instead, the commission reduced its reserve fund.
Painful service cuts were anticipated for 2011’s budget, but the county received a windfall in revenues -- which is not expected this year -- when the county came out from under court-imposed temporary collection orders and back-billed for uncollected taxes. The county wound up giving 2-percent raises to all workers earning $40,000 per year or less.
Commission Vice Chair Emma Darnell broached the possibility of increasing salaries again Wednesday.
“I believe, at the end of the day, we’ll be able to meet our responsibilities as far as services,” Darnell said. “We just have to decide what priority we are going to give our employees.”
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