June 7, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
A public referendum on a wheel tax!
During Thursday night’s meeting, the county budget committee voted 5-0 to recommend to the full county commission that a resolution be adopted to have a public referendum on the ballot in the November election asking DeKalb County voters if they would support a $100 wheel tax for debt service to fund construction of a judicial center/jail. If approved by the voters, budget committee members say funds from the wheel tax could help offset what a proposed 51 cent property tax increase would generate in the meantime for debt service and allow the county to eventually scale back the size of that tax hike for debt service down to perhaps as low as 19 cents after a period a time when the wheel tax proceeds start coming in.
On Tuesday night, the budget committee voted to ask the county commission to establish an overall property tax levy of $2.61 cents per $100 of assessed value when the proposed consolidated budget is up for adoption on June 24. That’s a 61-cent hike from the current tax levy of $2.00 per $100 of assessed value. A year ago, the rate was $1.7308 cents.
Fifty-one cents of the proposed tax increase would go to fund debt service for a judicial center/jail while the remaining 10 cent increase would be allocated to schools to help fund the proposed new school budget which includes pay raises for certified personnel and support staff.
Budget committee member Glynn Merriman, who on Tuesday night voted for the $2.61 tax levy recommendation including a 51-cent increase for debt service, said Thursday night that he has struggled with that decision, and he expressed it in a prepared statement to the committee.
“I have been praying about this budget fervently and I hope that each of you has as well,” said Merriman. “I don’t take this lightly. I know none of the commissioners wanted this on their plate but yet here we are. Our backs are against the wall on this”.
“I am not for putting the tax burden just on property owners,” said Merriman. “I think we need to step back and rethink what we are doing and how this will affect so many people who are already struggling to stay afloat”.
Merriman gave his own personal example of how back-to-back tax increases would affect property owners.
“In 2022 my property taxes at the rate of $1.7308 was $1,628. In 2023 at the rate of $2.000, it was $1,881 which is a difference of $253. If we pass the $2.61 tax levy it will be $2,455 which is $827 more since 2022. This is only one of my properties that I am referring to. This does not include my business which I pay county and city taxes plus the county and city business tax,” he explained.
Merriman said constituents he has talked to favor a wheel tax over a large property tax hike because with a wheel tax, more people share the tax burden.
“Even if you are a renter, your rent will go up with a tax increase because the property owner will pass that along to you,” said Merriman. “We need to have a $100 wheel tax which would average $8.34 per month per vehicle and would generate about $2 million in revenue per year. If we ear mark it only for the judicial center then when its paid off, we could drop the wheel tax without a major property tax increase,” said Merriman.
If more people understood the tax options, Merriman said the wheel tax referendum might have a better chance to pass.
“We need to get this message out to the property owners of the county. It is very important that if you (property owners) don’t want this tax burden just on your property then please help us by passing a wheel tax so that everyone can contribute,” said Merriman.
If the proposed $2.61 tax rate is enacted by the county commission, the total tax levy for debt service would be 0.6160 cents, up 51 cents from the current rate of 0.1060 cents. The proposed 51 cent increase would generate $3,162,000 in new revenue to fund the debt on the judicial center/jail. A $100 wheel tax would raise approximately $2 million per year. If applied to debt service, wheel tax revenue would reduce the amount of additional property tax proceeds needed to $1,162,000 requiring only a 19-cent tax increase instead of 51 cents for the debt service fund. However, until wheel tax funds started coming in, the additional 51 cents would have to remain in place.
County Mayor Matt Adcock said he had already planned to include on the June monthly meeting agenda that the county commission take action on a resolution calling for a public referendum on at least a $50 wheel tax during the November election.
Meanwhile, due to rate hikes and mandates of the Affordable Care Act the county is budgeting an increase in the amount it pays toward health insurance for employees under its group plan. The county budget committee has approved an increase from $450 to $550 in the amount the county pays to meet the federal mandate in covering 64 county employees enrolled in the plan. The county budgets for all 90 employees in case others wish to join the plan later in the year.
The budget committee also included pay raises for truck drivers with CDL licenses working for the solid waste department. The pay rate will go from the current $15 to $20 per hour. Pay for laborers and welders will increase from $12 to $14 per hour. Recently the solid waste department has been shorthanded due to employees who have been sick or who have quit.
The budget committee concluded its business for the year Thursday night by adopting the consolidated budget for all county departments for the 2024-25 fiscal year to be presented for passage by the county commission during its next monthly meeting on June 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multi-Purpose Center.
If approved by the full county commission, the new $2.61 property tax rate levy would be divided as follows:
County General: $1.2583
Highway/Public Works: $0.0326 cents
General Capital Projects: $0.0733 cents
Debt Service: $0.6160 cents (an increase of 51 cents from the current debt service tax levy of $0.1060)
General Purpose Schools: $0.6298 (an increase of 10 cents from the current General Purpose Schools tax levy of $0.5298 cents)
TOTAL PROPOSED COUNTY TAX LEVY: $2.61 per $100 of assessed value which is up from the current tax levy of $2.00 per $100 of assessed value.
During the public comment period Thursday night, Jerry Adcock, a former county commissioner, spoke out against the proposed tax increase.
“Smithville had a population a couple of years ago at 5,059 and an average household income of $30,526. The poverty rate in Smithville is 34.8% and you guys are doing a property tax on these people,” said Adcock
“You (Merriman) say a wheel tax. I don’t know who or how many you have talked to, but I guarantee there is not a person that wants a wheel tax if you go out there and really talk to them. Wheel taxes never die. And when you say we’ll raise the property tax that gets the renters. The renters are already going to be hit because when the man (landlord) has to pay a property tax increase he is going to charge his renters for the increase. He will not absorb that himself,” he explained.
Adcock suggested that there could be another means of raising revenue.
“Four years ago, I asked the county when we were getting all that ARP money to put radars in all these police cars. Did you know that DeKalb County could raise money for a building fund? I don’t know how much money (could be raised) from the tickets they give (issue), maybe 5, 10, or 15 dollars from the sheriff’s department, city police, and highway patrol. Everybody argued with me on putting more radars in police cars at that time. We bought four radars with that money. What has that done for our building fund? Zero,” said Adcock.