Unhappy residents arrived at two DeKalb County Commission meetings the day after Independence Day, ready for some fireworks of their own.
A total of more than 80 people showed up at two public hearings Tuesday, with many people demanding the board not raise the tax rate 4.5 mills as advertised. That rate would increase taxes $93 a year for the average home in the county, which lost value, but could tack up to $451 a year for a home in which its value remained the same.
Instead, residents directed the county to think about cutting services and to definitely cut personnel.
“If you made a 40 percent cut in employees in this county, you wouldn’t miss a one of them,” said Blue Anderson, an insurance worker from Dunwoody. “You are going to have to cut.”
Personnel costs account for about 70 percent of costs in a typical department and 59 percent of the county’s $529 million budget. The county has about 7,500 full-time workers.
CEO Burrell Ellis has cut more than $100 million from the budget since taking office two years ago. Those cuts have failed to impress commissioners, who have twice refused small tax increases.
With property values down 13 percent countywide, a tax increase looks impossible to avoid when commissioners adopt a millage rate as part of adopting the 2011 budget next Tuesday. But some commissioners argue that is because Ellis has not restructured government as the board wanted.
“Many of us believe the day-to-day operations could be managed more efficiently,” said Commissioner Lee May, who heads the commission’s budget committee. “This is the CEO’s budget.”
Such political finger pointing, and even expectations that the commission will somewhat lower the tax hike, did nothing to ease residents’ minds, though.
“This commission and the CEO are going to have to work together to make our county a better place to live,” said Bob Morris, a retired phone company worker from Tucker who argued that any tax hike should have a sunset date to make sure taxes don’t stay artificially high.
Some also complained about the timing of Tuesday’s first public hearing, which began at 10 a.m. Retirees dominated that session, and some argued that the 6 p.m. session Tuesday was a problem for commuters.
Still, nearly 60 people showed up for the evening session, many trickling in wearing work clothes after the meeting began. The evening crowd was slightly more open to a tax increase but with restrictions.
Sandy Johnson, a corporate administrator who lives in south DeKalb, said she wanted to see any additional money go to reserves. Bond rating agencies lowered DeKalb’s rating earlier this year because it has just $12 million in reserves — less than a third of the $40 million that would cover a month’s expenses. The lower rating means higher borrowing costs for projects such as the $1.35 billion overhaul of the water and sewer system.
“You can’t run the county without funds,” Johnson said. “My concern is how you manage the money you have.”
In the end, most residents were not OK with the proposed tax hike. Over and over again, they said that the county has to lay off workers and cut back services to make ends meet.
“I don’t see any cuts to the county budget, but that’s what I’ve had to do with my budget,” said Mary Anne Brown, a retired office worker from Smoke Rise. “I just can’t afford any more taxes than I already pay.”
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