DeKalb May Raise County Taxes for Decatur and Other Cities
Decatur Metro | December 24, 2014 | 10:28 amA post by Bill Banks over at the AJC yesterday says that DeKalb is currently planning to raise county taxes on cities in the coming fiscal year, while holding resident taxes in unincorporated DeKalb flat with the previous year.
A table below the post details the potential impact to all of DeKalb’s individual cities, with Decatur’s county taxes set to rise 32% vs. 2014, but up 5.2% vs. 2013, since the cities all saw a tax cut this past year. Avondale residents would see a 25.2% increase vs. 2014 and a -9.2 decline vs. 2013.
According to Banks, the Commission is set to vote on the county’s budget and tax rate by the end of February 2015.
What’s the justification for raising taxes for residents in cities, not incorporated areas? Cost of providing services to residents in cities increased more than in incorporated areas? How so?
This seems counter-intuitive. I was under the impression that cities like Decatur pay for public services (like police) instead of having the country provide them. If that’s true, then shouldn’t taxes on city residents be the same if not lower than unincorporated country residents?
The absolute amount of county taxes that city residents pay is less because, you are right, a lot of services that the county provides to unincorporated residents is provided by cities to city residents. But it sounds like that the county portion of city resident taxes is going up while county taxes are not going up for unincorporated residents. I don’t really get the logic behind that.
Decatur residents do pay significantly less than unincorporated residents. Even less than before, since recent legislation allowed Decatur to opt out of duplicative services that we were paying for but not using. This would be the % increase on the items for which we are currently taxed.
More on that in this post if you’re interested: http://www.decaturmetro.com/2010/09/21/decatur-opts-out-of-dekalb-double-taxation-saves-residents/
If they do it, they will end up in court over it. Period.
It looks to me like a reaction to the Balkanization of DeKalb County. The County anticipates that it is going to be losing a lot of tax income by all of the new cities that are being created. It needs to raise more funds. So why not charge the cities that are the cause of its decreased revenues.
Not saying it’s right. Just saying what how it appears to me.
That’s exactly what it is. “Oh, you wanna secede and start your own city, huh? You wanna annex out of the County’s tax base, huh? Well here”s what WE think of THAT.”
Reminder to all. these cities are forming because Dekalb county will not get their financial house in order. The schools continue to lag performing districts in Mississippi and Alabama.
Sounds like people doing things just because they can. Now I wonder where they got that idea….
Well if we’re mapping the action/reaction between the cities and counties, don’t forget how DeKalb withheld tens of millions in HOST money from the DeKalb cities for many years because – they claimed in court – they deemed themselves ineligible to set up an agreement that they set up and agreed to. And not only did Decatur and the other cities miss out on that $, but they had to pay all the legal fees associated with DeKalb opting out of their own agreement.
DeKalb and its cities have been battling for decades.
I think it is a great way to fairly support the county services. People who have sought to weaken the counties tax base by forming new cities will have to pay for forming new cities. The new cities have robbed the county of commercial property income, and the new cities have joyously gobbled that money up! I think there are many services the county provides for all residents besides schools, police and fire! If the emergencies are big enough then the county comes in to assist with the cities fire and police needs. The county provides libraries, roads, and many other programs to all residents.
You must have an interesting definition of “fair.”
The cities aren’t “robbing” DeKalb of anything. Many of the cities are 100+ years old and have been doing just fine with their own police, sanitation, planning & zoning services.
I’m a Decatur resident and a DeKalb resident. How does the fact that I live in a municipality justify that I pay more for county library services than someone who lives in North Druid Hills (notwithstanding the fact that I’ve never stepped foot inside a library here…I know they provide a needed service, just pointing out that I don’t use it)?
This is nothing more than a thumb in the eye to cities because the law says that duplication of services is not right and taxes must reflect that. DeKalb has less costs because it doesn’t provide primary fire and police services to me, therefore they should not bill me. As for water & sewer, those are enterprise funds largely funded by user fees and development impact fees, correct (or capacity recovery fees or whatever euphemism they use)?
I thought CEO May was a huge step up from Ellis but this is disappointing. I’m sure it’s legal but it just smacks of sour grapes. Let your County Commissioners know what you think folks, they’re your elected officials even if you live in one of these “robber barron” cities.
Or maybe I’m reading the table wrong. I’d like to see more info there.
I understand my DeKalb tax bill is going up after a decrease and is still not as large a percentage of my total tax bill as an unincorporated resident (which is partly explained by me not consuming as many county services as an unincorporated resident). But I’d like to see an explanation of what has changed in the last year. Why such an increase this year? I’d just like to see more justification.
Still, the cities aren’t robbing anything from DeKalb and the services I do use from the county are only those I do not pay for through the city.
After the creation of all these cities won’t the majority of the representatives on the DeKalb County Commission be representing a region which has a majority of City residents in it? If this is the case I do not see how raising taxes on city residents could be politically tenable.
Currently, about 200,000 of DeKalb’s 700,000 residents live in cities. So City residents are still vastly outnumbered by residents at large. I do not want to be annexed into the City of Decatur, but Decatur is trying for the third time in 10 years. And it looks like this time mary Margaret Oliver will sponsor the bill. They have either planned poorly or overspent. Once they annex the new areas, they said they may want to come in and use eminent domain to take the newly annexed areas for new schools. Would you like it if you were at risk for loosing your home in your senior years because Decatur wants to annex you to cover its funding challenges? I think not.
It’s possible it could be pension-related.
“CCCSD members said that Avondale’s annexation plans motivated them to act because it included property close to South DeKalb. They said they felt vulnerable to cities cherry picking nicer commercial properties while leaving the rest of South DeKalb’s residents stuck supporting DeKalb County’s debt, specifically its legacy of pensions.
The new cities that have formed, like Dunwoody and Brookhaven, aren’t required to support those pensions, something state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver mentioned during a recent interview. If the rest of DeKalb County incorporates, that could potentially shift the debt burden onto South DeKalb residents. CCCSD estimates the costs for unincorporated residents could increase from $91 per person to $141 per person.”
Source:
http://www.decaturish.com/2014/11/plans-south-dekalb-city-taking-shape/
Yikes.