County Budget Committee Getting Down to Business on 2019-20 Spending Plan

April 27, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The County Budget Committee has begun the process of either approving or rejecting requests for new spending by county department supervisors for the 2019-20 fiscal year

During Wednesday night’s meeting, the committee considered proposals made by the Emergency Management Agency Director Charlie Parker, Fire Chief Donny Green, and Sheriff Patrick Ray. Other requests will be considered at later meetings.

All favorable recommendations will be funded in the new budget subject to approval by the county commission with passage of the 2019-20 budget this summer.

Under his request EMA Director Parker would be paid at least for one year. He has served in the role for 16 years without pay. Parker met with the budget committee last month to formally submit his proposed spending plan which includes a salary for himself of $5,200 for the new year.

Parker plans to apply for a federal grant through TEMA which if approved would provide matching funds for the local operation. But in order to get the grant the county must have a paid EMA director.

If approved, Parker said an Emergency Management Performance Grant would reimburse the county up to 50% of its costs for EMA operations which would be $13,800 including the director’s salary under the 2019-20 proposed budget.

The budget committee’s vote to fund the EMA Director position is conditional upon the grant being funded and Parker’s willingness to accept being the county’s flood plain director, a responsibility he once volunteered to do but later gave up.

Parker said the county’s EMA operation needs to be more active because TEMA expects local jurisdictions to be better prepared to help themselves first.

Disaster relief funds have been made available locally in the past thanks to the work of the DeKalb EMA and damage assessments were recently completed due to the flooding in February and March which will result in more assistance due to a Presidential Disaster Declaration.

Meanwhile, the budget committee Wednesday night voted to honor Fire Chief Green’s request to allocate funds in the new budget to upgrade and add restrooms to three existing fire halls.

“The emergency services committee suggested that we look at doing these fire halls a few at a time picking out two or three that need it most so we identified the Johnson Chapel, Blue Springs, and Keltonburg stations. We ask that funds be budgeted to add unisex restrooms including a sink and toilet in each of these fire halls,” said Chief Green.

The budget committee voted to increase the fire department spending for maintenance from $7,500 this year to $20,000 in the new budget. The difference, $12,500 would be taken from the capital projects fund

The committee also approved funding of $36,100 to meet a 5% local match for an Assistance to Firefighters Grants which if approved would fund the purchase of another fire truck and related firefighting equipment.

Action has been delayed on Chief Green’s request to fund two shared part-time positions in the fire department. The cost to the county would be $68,640 per year. No two specific individuals would get the jobs.  Available firefighters, who are trained and certified, would rotate in and out of the positions as needed and no firefighter would work more than 24 hours a week. The two fire fighters would be assigned to work out of the main station on King Ridge Road, which serves as the hub of the county fire department.

Sheriff Patrick Ray had requested that the budget committee fund the purchase of five patrol cars in the new budget at a cost of $165,000 from the capital projects fund. The committee voted instead to fund three cars at $100,000 because the county may have to allocate money from capital projects to meet obligations in other budgets if revenues are not sufficient.

The committee has not yet taken up Sheriff Ray’s request to fund five new positions including one extra court officer, two extra shift supervisor positions for the sheriff’s department operation, and two extra shift supervisors for the jail.

The county has been digging into its savings account (surplus or fund balance) for the last couple of years to fund the government (county general) and unless it can tap into new sources of revenue limits may have to be put on new spending in the 2019-20 budget year.

During Wednesday night’s budget committee meeting, the county’s financial advisor Steve Bates warned that the revenues are not keeping pace with expenditures in both the county general and capital projects fund. Bates said sooner or later the county is going to have to face this revenue problem.

April 26, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

DCHS Tigerette Softball program will host an alumni game Saturday, April 27at 2:00 p.m. at the DCHS Danny Bond Field.

Admission is $5.00, and concessions will be available. Please come out and support these former players and the Tigerette softball program.

Alumni playing Saturday are:

Kristena Bain

Michele Gard Roller

Olivia Norton

Hailey Redmon

Shauna Taylor

Emily Robinson Vanatta

Allison Maynard

Kelly Parkerson Pyburn

Karen Taylor France

Kayla Fish Gouge

Mindy Higdon Versluis

Hanah Panter

Tara Cantrell Stults

Rebecca Waggoner

Crystal Norton Vickers

Misty Bluhm Walker

Myranda Bailiff

Hannah Walker

Rachel Evans

Shaundra Braswell Smith

Shea Hayes Colwell

Nanci Allen Drennan

Danielle Tyson Horton

Loren Cripps

Ashley Redmon Murray

Kim Hale Young

April 26, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The county has been digging into its savings account (surplus or fund balance) for the last couple of years to fund the government (county general) and unless it can tap into new sources of revenue limits may have to be put on any new spending in the upcoming budget year.

During Wednesday night’s budget committee meeting, the county’s financial advisor Steve Bates warned that the revenues are not keeping pace with expenditures in both the county general and capital projects fund. The county general funds the county offices, sheriff’s department, library system, ambulance service, etc.  Capital projects is a fund set aside to make repairs or improvements to buildings, purchase vehicles, etc.  Although the county helps fund and has to approve them too, the road department and board of education operate under their own budgets

Bates said sooner or later the county is going to have to face this revenue problem.

“The general fund has been going down. For the fiscal years 2017 and 2018 the county went into cash (surplus or fund balance) both years and probably will this year. The trend is there and the longer you wait the worse it’s going to get. I don’t have all the general fund expenditures plugged in but just copying and pasting what we had last year together with what has been approved in pay raises it doesn’t look good. You are at a point now where you are going to have to make a decision on where you want to take this county going forward,” said Bates.

“We have now found ourselves at a pivot point in DeKalb County. You have a capital projects fund but at some point if you keep depleting it you are going to have to replace it. It’s a great fund. I remember we created that fund with $15,000 several years ago and it has been a savior many times. When that tornado came through in 2011  as we were working on the county complex all that money to make the repairs came from the capital projects fund. If you want to keep paying cash so you don’t have to go to the local bank to borrow money for capital projects like buying  patrol cars we need to keep a strong capital projects fund,” said Bates.

Strong fund balances also help support the county’s bond rating. “You have one of the lowest debt per capita ratios of any county in the state of Tennessee and among the strongest fund balances of any county I work with and an A1 bond rating which is excellent. The county has done a really good job but you need to maintain that. If the county has plans to build a school you need to protect your cash position now. You don’t want to go to market reluctant to raise revenues. You want to go with strong cash balances,” added Bates.

Budget Committee Chairman Dennis Slager said he would like for the county to explore alternatives for raising revenue other than turning to the taxpayers.

“There is no way we can move forward on this new budget without going into cash (surplus or fund balance) or raising revenues. Our county is growing and our services are expanding and its beginning to cause a strain on the county because revenues are not keeping up with it but I am looking for other avenues for revenues. I really believe we can raise some short term revenues real quick. In this budget I believe we can put together some revenue increases probably at least a couple hundred thousand dollars that won’t be property tax increases. Revenues that will hopefully offset some of the mandatory spending we’re going to have to do or spending we choose to do. There are numerous things we are not charging for as a county. For example if you come before our planning commission to bring plats we don’t charge a dime. We also need to adjust our court fees to bring in more revenue.  All this may seem small but it all adds up,” said Slager.

“I think we have to fine tune the budget in front of us and check other revenue sources and then after this budget is voted on and passed I think we have to immediately start working on how to pull us out of the rabbit hole to get revenues back where they need to be. This is very serious. We are going into the savings account to fund the government and you can only go so many times. We did last year and we’re headed that way this year big time. Salary increases last year were not funded and now it’s like a double dip with state mandated pay raises and local step raises that have to be funded. This amounts to $750,000 to around a million dollars in new money we’re having to fund from this years and next year’s budget,” added Slager.

The current county property tax rate of $1.8335 per $100 of assessed value  is distributed as follows:

County General: 0.9635 cents
Highway/Public Works: 0.03 cents
General Capital Projects: 0.10 cents
Debt Service: 0.13 cents
General Purpose Schools: 0.61 cents

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