Ellis Proposes 11% Tax Increase For DeKalb
Decatur Metro | December 16, 2009 | 8:19 amDeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis revealed his 2010 budget yesterday, which proposes an 11% increase in property taxes and cutting nearly 760 jobs. From the AJC…
Ellis would reduce the spending side of the ledger by about $30 million. He wants do this by eliminating 360 ghost jobs that have been unfilled but remain on the books; and by offering early retirement. His budget is predicated on 400 employees taking the offer. The proposal would allow staff to retire without penalty before the minimum age of 50 if they have worked at least 25 years for the county.
“We have no choice but to have a reduction in our work force,” Ellis said.
The Decatur/DeKalb tax gap continues to close.
Can we divorce ourselves from DeKalb? While we are at it, let’s just declare ourselves the 51st state. We can rotate the senate and house seats until everyone gets a turn and have our very own electoral vote.
Why have they been budgeting for 360 “ghost jobs”? That’s weird. Someone explain to my poor morning brain.
Agree that “ghost jobs” need to be explained. They sound like unfilled vacancies but why would cutting those save any money? Hopefully, the ghosts weren’t receiving salary payments! I guess this is a position freeze taken to the extreme–any unfilled positions are cut forever. But why use the term “ghost job” elimination when it’s really just position slashing that only includes unfilled positions.
Re 51st state and rotating Senate and House seats–that is just so Decatur! I love it! But could we start that rotation with School Board first? And my turn doesn’t have to be long. I just want to be in place long enough to approve a budget that substantially beefs up paraprofessional support for the elementary school classrooms, then I’m done. The next person can negotiate with the rest of the Board about what has to be cut to do that–administrative bonuses, transportation, whatever.
Notice that no real employees were cut. Ellis is running scared about losing the CEO position.
DeKalb needs to cut waste, not ghosts.
I wonder how much is the Dunwoody Effect?
Is that 11% raise for DeK Co services, not including Schools? (Schools make up 76% of their tax bill.)
Read the article. The writer uses ghost jobs because it sounds better than unfilled, but funded, positions. Removing the funding from the positions allows the overall budget to be reduced.
I think everyone gets that. The question to me is actually how long have the jobs been open, budgeted for and where is the money? That’s a huge amount of jobs.
Any municipality would have kept the positions open as long as there is a possibility that they could be filled in that budget year. The money that is in the budget for unfilled positions is a part of the fund balance remaining at the end of each year.
I would like to see the citizens of a jurisdiction spell out what services should be cut. Waste is always mentioned, but is seldom identified, beyond the stuff I don’t want/use/need. Citizens should ask for a detailed list of services provided and select those to be abolished. As with everything, you get what you pay for. A fee-based government model saves money, but it seldom makes for a great community.
Nellie,
The City of Decatur has budgeted and funded unfilled positions, including 4-5 in the police department.
Also, I was told they have funding for a full-time animal control position (they currently use a part timer from Dekalb) but they “can’t find” anyone to do the job.
I’m sure there are funded, but unfilled positions in other departments as well.
Really?
I do understand that positions are budgeted for but left unfilled; nonprofits do that too. You also in reality budget for attrition. BUT 400 POSITIONS? Two or three or twenty, but 400?
Oh, and the “Really?” was for the $$$ for fulltime animal control. Do you believe that they can’t find anyone?
I am not finishing thoughts today.
Not saying that 400 positions isn’t a little ridiculous, but remember that the Dekalb government is probably 30 times larger than City of Decatur, so 400 unfilled positions would be the equivalent of 13-14 unfilled positions in the City of Decatur.
And, yes, I find it hard to believe that the City cannot find a qualified dog catcher.
The Decatur PD actively recruits continuously to fill open positions. They are not being left unfilled on purpose.
Brilliant — your residents have lost billions in home value (for may their primary asset), you are in the teeth of a major recession, so what to do? Dip your hand into their pockets for another 11%! I wonder, is this on top of the inflated appraisals, which are in and of themselves an effective tax increase?
Of course, this increase won’t ever be repealed. If the market turns around and tax collections soar, we’ll just increase spending AGAIN in excess of the rate of inflation and population growth, setting the stage for another budget “crisis” during the next recession, and the next excuse for taking even more of our money. Then the pols will blame it all on lousy tax collections, and not their profligate spending. This is playing out on a grand scale in California right now, and then end game is not good.
I’m not going to argue macro-economic policy, but I do know that in the 8 years we have owned our home, our property tax rate has gone down at times. So, while it is a legitimate concern, it’s not a foregone conclusion that taxes always go up.
Agreed.
I wonder if folks were presented with the option of no tax increase and massive cuts in services (let’s say trash pick-up once every two weeks and fewer total police officers) or an 11% increase, which one they would pick.
Gwinnett just went through that process and, after the residents found out what no tax increase meant in terms of lack of services, ended up with an increase anyway.
That’s interesting. Got anything on this? I’d like to see how it breaks down from Gwinnetians.
I mean, how it breaks down FOR Gwinnetians.
Sorry. I am a mess today.
You are assuming that more money equals better services. It doesn’t. Even in the heydey of soaring revenues, my experience with DeKalb police was terrible. On a larger level, there have been some great articles lately comparing services in low-tax Texas to high tax California. Just yesterday I read a long article from a SF publication explianing why, despite a $6.6 budget for only 800,000 residents, San Francisco’s public services are abysmal.
So, if my choice is between less frequent trach pickup and a whopping 11% increase in taxes, I’m just fine with the once a week pickup.
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That should be, AGREED with DEM!