Tuesday, May 17, 2011

And If You Think The Pension News Is Bad........

DeKalb taxpayers are now facing a possible tax rate increase after the county appraiser's office reported the tax digest plummeted by $3 billion. Yes, that is a "b", not a typo.

Commissioner May, who just a few weeks ago was hell bent on not raising taxes, had this too say: "We think there's going to be a little bit of everything that's included in our final budget recommendations." "That could include raising the tax rate, laying off and furloughing employees, and further cutting or reducing county services."

Did you catch that folks? FURLOUGHS!

With all this wonderful news, it will be very interesting when the command staff starts pushing down the initiative of bringing the number of traffic citations issued to 2009 numbers, as recently discussed in a command staff meeting.

That would not be a smart move Chief O'Brien. Especially now.

18 comments:

SickAnTired said...

Attention Command Staff, I'm not working harder for less money!!!!!!

Everything is increasing from gas, property taxes, groceries, and day care and my paycheck is not keeping up. If you can't understand that and make some changes you probably won't have a department to run.

Anonymous said...

With the funds/millage dedicated solely to Police, atleast the BOC, can't balance the budget solely on our backs.

Anonymous said...

Sickandtired you WILL continue to follow orders because you clearly have no other options. Otherwise you would have left for a competent agency long ago.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:38,

You sound as if you are protected from furloughs. You couldn't be more wrong! They will furlough you in a heartbeat. They furlouged fire, and they too have dedicated millage.

And don't forget E911. They were furloughed too, and they are paid strictly from telephone 911 fees (supposedly).

You must be a rookie, because obviously you're oblivious to the furlough days last year.

Anonymous said...

The fact that Fire and 911 have dedicated money for their budget makes me wonder what happnened to the money that was supposedly saved by furloughing them? Did the administration just roll that money back into the general fund? If that is the case then the dedicated millage serves no purpose except for the CEO and BOC to raise taxes in the name of public safety and spend it wherever they want anyhow.

Anonymous said...

Lets see who they recruit to come work here at these current problems.

No raises, no merit raises, no cost of living increase. How many years has it been?

Increase pension and insurance.

Wait we have new uniform shirts being issue. We are change colors again.

No take home car for uniform division and probably not in the future plans.

We are surviving on grant money for any new equipment.

The future looks bleak for anyone with more than 10 years to go.

Anonymous said...

Not a rookie, but the first time I've worked under a dedicated millage.... good point ... forgot about Fire and 911....

Anonymous said...

Commissioneer May, like all of the other Democratic commissioneers, are a large bunch of inept idiots.
Together with the biggest idiot of them all (the CEO) and watch out.

You think that the county is in deep finanical doodoo now, wait til the taxes get increased. The county will be further in the hole.
Just becasue the Chief appraiser states that the county is 3 BILLION SHORT, with no explanation, makes the commissioneers believe that its tax increase time. Good ol pass the buck time.

Let the county just declare BANKRUPTCY and start over again with total RE-ORGANIZATION.

Now that would be a tremendous start start in the right direction !!!

Anonymous said...

Furlough means you get the day off without pay. Fire dept "furloughs" didn't include any time off. They just reduced our pay... We need to get together and demand total restructuring of this county. DeKalb is not out of money, the funds are just waisted...

Anonymous said...

Told you all last month from a inside source in Decatur...Furlough Days are on the way!!!!...prepare now..start squirling away and looking for your extra j2 now...don't get caught with your pants down....I'm a grunt too...just like the most of us.....but I'm squirling away now..with putting extra j2 on a walmart card.....you've been warned....AGAIN!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm paying 300 dollars a month in gas
just to come to work. I would not feel safe living in DeKalb.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:01. You are dead on target. If the county had reorganized and downsized three years ago as required by the financial recession, the county would have a handle on the current financial crises.
Instead the county now appears to face a 50 million dollar deficit with some near impossible cuts to be made.
I would advise all county employees to seriously examine their job-skill set for possible employment elsewhere. If you do not have a viable skill set then go to night school and develop one.
It is obvious that more furloughs and lay-offs are forthcoming for the employees.
The county is in deep financial trouble and the commissioner's look first to the employees to provide additional revenue for county operations.
As much as I love DeKalb County, on a personal level, one to one as a friend, look at the facts and form an employment decision based upon what is best for yourself and your families financially.
The commissioners have been making extremely poor decisions for the last decade at the expense of the employees. From their previous actions and recent history, DeKalb Commissioners will royally screw the employees.
I would advise all to develop a plan for employment elsewhere.
Best of luck, mates!
KenC

Anonymous said...

Well, it couldn't be more apparent now than ever. This CEO form of government is rediculous and a disaster. If the county would go back to a form of government that allowed the Commission to appoint, yes appoint, a County Manager with proven and competent business (not law, engineering, physics, etc) skills there just might be someone in place now that could do what should have been done long ago. And that's simply to downsize non-essential services and contract other services; to concentrate on the essential services such as police, fire, water and sewer and whatever is necessary to support them. That's it.

God help us all!

Anonymous said...

You know what is really sad? Let's "pretend" the county does turn around for the better and begins to prosper again. I can't see part of that ever being passed along to the DeKalb County taxpayers or employees to pay all of us back for tremendous sacrifices made to keep this sinking ship afloat.

Gold Badge said...

Less and less ....every year I take home less and less...I'm gainfully employed, work hard, been promoted, etc etc........ but I find my standard of living and my ability to provide for my family going down..... long term employment with Dekalb is not looking good.

Is there a valid reason for staying?

Anonymous said...

Where is the CEO Reorganization
Plan? He stuped the Commissioners.
They asked for it and he ignored them. So shall we say that the
BOC is inept?We know the CEO is.
So now they will raise the
taxes. And, maybe someone will
offer Ellis a job in Washington,he spends enough time there,traveling
on the taxpayers dollar. Washington has no money so why doesn't he stay here and do his job if he ever finds out what it is.

Anonymous said...

NO, the best and brightest saw the writing on the wall and left long ago. Your IQ directly correlates to the amount of time you waste at Dekalb.

Exceptional Radio said...

Bottom line, everyone is broke. Some spent reserves, some raised taxes, some cut services (layoffs and furloughs included) and some did all three. Tax revenue comes from tax paying citizens. When people are unemployed, they are not paying taxes. When businesses have less receipts they are bringing in, less taxes. Simple math here folks. Of course, some will use this as a springboard for other issues they have with certain folks.

I am all for cutting services, we only should have necessities not luxuries. If people want them, then be prepared to pay for them (user pays system). There are somethings that the government should not even be in the business of doing (concerts, movie screenings, performance halls, convention facilities, continuing education classes, dances and balls and the list goes on). And yes, I talked about these in Fulton and some of their cities.

Its time to look at consolidation and elimination. Everything including public safety has to be on the table. We cannot continue to do business as usual. Government must get out of the business of providing jobs.