County And School Budget Hearings, IDA Budget Approved

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

It’s budget season for the Dade County Board of Commissioners, the Dade County Board of Education, and the Industrial Development Authority. The City of Trenton follows a different budget schedule, so news about that budget will be coming later this year.

The IDA’s budget doesn’t determine the millage rate the way the county, BOE, and city budgets do, but because it was one of the three budgets discussed last week, we’re covering it alongside the FY26 BOE and county budgets.

At the IDA’s regular monthly meeting on June 16, the board quickly approved the budget (which they had discussed at the May meeting; see the May 28 Sentinel).

The total budget is $154,200 with an additional $66,000 in reserves. The budget categories are professional services (legal, accounting, audit, surveying/etc.), administrative costs (rent, printing, travel, etc.), insurance, marketing and workforce development, industrial parks (site preparation and maintenance, signage), landlord services (for CHI Memorial and Integer buildings), Northwest Georgia Joint Development Authority, and salary and board compensation.

Next, the BOE held its second budget hearing on June 16 at 12:30 p.m. The Sentinel did not attend the first hearing (on June 9 at 5 p.m.), but the board reported that no citizens attended that hearing. After this issue was sent to press, the board voted on the budget at the beginning of the June monthly meeting (June 23). Check back next week for info about that vote.

The school board had adopted the tentative budget at the May board meeting before receiving insurance quotes, but the quotes from the Georgia School Boards Association for property and casualty insurance came back higher than estimated. Therefore, the budget increased by $47,525 after all adjustments were made.

Using last year’s millage rate of 14.000, the board will collect $8,039,055 from local property taxes. Other local sources (car tags, grants, TVA revenue) will total $1,606,347, and $14,149,118 will come from state funds. At 59 percent of the budget, state funds will make up the lion’s share.

The total projected revenue is $23,794,520, but expenditures total $26,497,291. The reserve fund balance will be used to make up the difference, meaning the projected reserve fund balance at the start of FY26 is $9,186,006, but the projected balance at the end of FY26 is $6,483,235.

Josh Ingle (superintendent) explained three factors impacting this net difference: an increase in health insurance premiums paid for by the schools, local fair share increase, and salary increases.

Of health insurance, Ingle said, “A community member asked me last week, ‘Can’t you negotiate or bid out your insurance?’ But we don’t have that option.” The school board must go through the state health benefit plan, and it costs a little over $22,000 per employee. Just under $2 million of the deficit is attributed to health insurance.

Of the local fair share (the amount automatically taken by the state), Ingle reported that it increased by $301,210 this year. The state looks at the total tax digest before exemptions are taken into account, and as the total tax digest increases, so does the local fair share.

Also, as discussed each year, the difference between the total tax digest and the taxable amount (after exemptions) impacts how much Dade receives in equalization funds. This year, the school system will not receive any equalization funds.

The Sentinel asked the board how they feel about the decrease in the reserve fund. To summarize, the board members are very thankful to have the extra funds this year, but they are concerned about the future. At this rate, the reserve fund will dry up quickly, but they said it buys them time this year to plan ahead for future years.

When considering this topic, it will be helpful to refer to the Sentinel’s March 19 article about the reserve fund.

Jennifer Hartline (Sand Mountain representative) and Jayne Griffin (At-Large representative) both noted that they are glad to have the reserve fund exactly because of situations like this. Griffin continued, “My yellow flag is going up: What’s going to happen next year? It doesn’t look like health insurance premiums are going to go down.”

Griffin noted that they have this year to think about how to address inflation, and Hartline and Johnny Warren (Trenton representative) agreed. Hartline said, “All the different programs have their own little fundraisers, but you’re limited in what you can do as a school system to say, ‘Hey, how else can we bring in money?’ You’ve got to look at how can we best utilize the funds that we have and where can we cut what we need to cut?”

Steve Forester (Lookout Mountain representative) added that the reserve fund is used to make payroll in months when revenue is low, so as the reserve fund drops, this will be a concern for him.

Ingle noted that because E-SPLOST VI (Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) is on track to reach its $16 million cap early, the board hopes to put E-SPLOST on the ballot again (for E-SPLOST VII) in November, so anticipate a push in favor of that sales tax coming soon. Several members highlighted that without SPLOST, the millage rate would increase rapidly, and they said that sales tax decreases the burden on local taxpayers.

Lastly, the county held its first budget hearing at 10 a.m. on June 20. The second hearing and adoption of the budget will be on June 27, also at 10 a.m.

As the budget currently stands, revenue is $15,719,000, but expenses total $16,069,000 for a $350,000 difference. The revenue is up $397,000 from last year’s budget, and just like last year, insurance is up across the board. Don Townsend (county executive) said that insurance is up $250,000 from last year.

COLA (cost of living adjustments) also contributes to the increase, with a $275,000 increase if all county employees receive a four percent increase.

The department with the highest increase in its budget is the Dade County Sheriff’s Office (up almost $210,000 from last year). Code enforcement comes in second (up over $100,000), the Board of Commissioners is third (up almost $100,000), and animal control is fourth (up about $80,000).

Townsend noted that the state set a required raise for the county commission office, not the county. The commissioners and the part-time grant writer fall under the part-time employee line item, which increased by $5,000 from last year. The regular employee line item increased by just over $9,000.

Townsend said that if the county can’t find another way to make up the $350,000 difference, he would suggest only a two percent cost of living raise for employees, but this doesn’t apply to the commission. Even with this, a chunk would still need to be accounted for.

Here are just a few quick highlights (using round numbers) from the long hearing.

The Board of Elections is requesting funds to pay poll workers for their time spent training. It has become difficult to recruit poll workers due to the long hours and the $10/hour pay, and the office currently does not compensate workers for their time spent on training. The office’s proposed budget for FY26 is almost $200,000.

Code enforcement increased from about $5,000 in FY25 to over $105,000 proposed for FY26 due to hiring more personnel. Stacy Stephens (building maintenance and electrical inspections) explained that new permit requirements have increased the workload significantly. The building maintenance budget also increased from nearly $815,000 to over $840,000.

The county’s proposed portion of the Dade County Public Library’s budget is $132,000, down $1,000 from FY25 in the building maintenance line. Lydia Soucy (library manager) asked for an increase from the county due to a 40 percent increase in medical insurance costs. Both of the full-time employees are on the insurance. Townsend said he would like the commission to consider $3,000 in addition to the $132,000. They will decide this week.

Now we get to the big ticket items: Dade County Sheriff’s Office, Dade County Jail, and emergency services. Emergency services (E-911, EMA, and EMS) totals just over $1,700,000.

The DCSO budget is almost $3,130,000 (almost 20 percent of the county’s total proposed expenses), and the jail’s budget is almost $2 million (another 12 percent of the county budget).

Townsend noted that the DCSO employee costs are up primarily due to cost of living increases. Tommy Bradford (chief deputy) said that the sheriff’s office hired two new employees last year but no new employees this year. Line items for employees, part-time, and overtime total almost $2 million, and insurance is about $600,000.

The commissioners and Bradford discussed the pros and cons of having officers work overtime, hiring part-time officers, or creating new full-time positions. Full-time officers require insurance and benefits, but overtime pay can also add up.

As Townsend said, “The overtime number in a lot of counties is astronomical, I’m talking about in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ours is $37,800. That’s not bad…There is a benefit to overtime…You pay somebody a little extra who wants a little extra and you don’t have to pay [a new person] the money, fringe benefits, medical, etc.”

They also discussed this in the context of the new animal control officer, but there was no clear way to save money. The budget includes $82,300 (salary, benefits, etc.) for this new employee.

Of the jail, Captain Joe Chambers highlighted inmate medical care. While only $45,000 (plus some of the contracted services line item that covers the nurse and doctor) is allotted to this, medical needs can create unexpected expenses. For example, one inmate jumped off a high point and fell 20 feet onto concrete, and two mental health inmates were hospitalized last year, causing unexpected expenses.

The biggest chunk of the jail budget are the employees, part-time, and overtime line items, totaling just under $1 million. Second, insurance comes in at about $285,000, and inmate food is third at $200,000.