Budget struggles ahead in DeKalb | www.myajc.com

Every department in DeKalb County government was supposed to cut spending by at least 5 percent next year, so that interim CEO Lee May would have the cash to hire 160 cops and 100 firefighters as part of a pledge to boost public safety.

But according to documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday, most departments are asking for more money in the upcoming year — to the tune of $79 million more than this year’s $560 million spending plan. That gives May and county finance officials just three months to make massive cuts on their own to fulfill his promise.

“That is still two months more than we have typically had to see these figures,” May said. “We are being transparent early, so we can expose how we’ve been operating and show the kinds of tough decisions we are going to be making.”

May has warned that the county could pull back or cut some services to pay for his ambitious plan to hire 480 police officers and 300 firefighters over the next three years.

But, he also has not made any promises that taxes won’t go up, at least for some residents.

Countywide, the property values that set the tax rate should be stable in 2014, according to working projections the county released Thursday.

But values in the unincorporated area, about 70 percent of the county, are projected to dip about two percent.

Because the funding of county police is primarily the responsibility of the unincorporated area — most cities provide their own service and contract for only some advanced protections — those residents could pay more next year for police, even if the overall tax rate remains unchanged.

via Budget struggles ahead in DeKalb | www.myajc.com.