June 18, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Almost a million dollars.
That’s how much extra local property tax revenue Road Supervisor Danny Hale is asking of the county to help him repair deteriorating roads.
Hale appeared before the County Budget Committee Thursday night to make his case for an increase in the local property tax rate of 16 cents to help shore up the road department budget which equates to an increase of $991,520 under the new certified property tax rate calculation. The certified tax rate is $1.7308 per $100 of assessed value. If approved the rate would increase, based on Hale’s request alone by 16 cents to an overall rate of $1.8908 per $100 of assessed value.
Although the road department is primarily funded by allocations from state sources such as gasoline and motor fuel tax, state aid program, and the petroleum special tax, it also benefits from a local mineral severance tax and the county currently kicks in four cents of the local property tax rate which, according to the 2020-21 budget comes to about $190,000 a year.
Still, Hale said that is not near enough to do the work needed.
Breaking it down by month, Hale explained that his department receives an average of $173,502 in state revenue and $16,143 in county tax funds for a total of $189,645 while the cost to operate is $112,859 per month which covers everything but paving, chipping, and buying equipment. According to Hale that leaves him only $76,786 per month to service 513 miles of roads in DeKalb County or $149 per mile in which to tar and chip or pave.
“Eighty five percent of our roads need to be redone (re-chipped). That’s a reality. Our roads are all to pieces. Its costs us $32,000 to $35,000 per mile to chip a road and $110,000 to $180,000 per mile to pave,” said Road Supervisor Hale.
Even if the county grants his request, Hale said that would still only allow him to service 32 to 35 road miles per year.
“This year alone we have had three disasters. We had an ice storm and we worked night and day cleaning up the roads but before we finished that we had a flood and we’re still working to clean up from that today and then we had a tornado come through. To accomplish anything we are going to have to put some money into our roads and I am asking for help” added Hale.
The budget committee has not yet acted on Road Supervisor Hale’s request.