Thursday, February 7, 2013
© Copyright 2013
Rockdale Citizen
CONYERS -- The City Council approved a budget amendment Wednesday night that reflects reduced revenues of approximately $380,000.
Isabel Rogers, chief financial officer for the city, said Thursday that the majority of the reduction is attributed to a decrease in property tax collections. She said property tax appeals were responsible for about $283,000 of the decrease in collections.
The shortfall will be made up from the city's fund balance, which will leave the fund at less than $500,000. The recommended level for fund balances is 10 to 15 percent of the budget, Rogers said, which would be $1.5 to $2 million on a total budget of $12.8 million.
"We have been able to keep up with the down economy, but it's finally catching up with us," she said.
The city's budget, which was approved in June, was based on anticipated property tax collections of $5.5 million, which was essentially flat to the prior year.
However, Rogers said Thursday that decreased property values and tax assessment appeals from this year and prior years had whittled down that number. Property tax collections are now budgeted at $5.1 million.
"The appeals are pretty hard a lot of times to anticipate," she said, adding that "there are some cases that we are just getting to go through from 2010 where people have paid and we have to pay back."
The budget approved in June was $700,000 less than the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget. The city managed to hold its millage rate at 9.9 mills while at the same time it froze wages for employees.
According to city officials, this was the first time in 30 years that employees did not receive either a cost-of-living increase, annual merit increase or bonus.
At the time the budget was approved, Rogers said that most of the budget spending decrease was in frozen positions and a reduction in one-time expenditures from the previous year. In addition, she said that training expenses city-wide had been eliminated, except in cases where the training was mandatory.
More like this story
- Conyers eyes 5-mill property tax increase ( May 16, 2013 )
- Conyers approves budget ( May 30, 2009 )
- City preparing for another tight budget year ( May 1, 2013 )
- Conyers OKs Tax Anticipation Note of $2 million ( May 2, 2013 )
- Conyers facing tough budget year ( May 19, 2012 )
Comments
ClaytonBigsby 3 months, 2 weeks ago
It should be easy to close the gap with trafic citations, which I'd be more than glad to see.
Clark 3 months, 2 weeks ago
And if that isn't enough, are police going to start making up offenses or lying that someone committed something? Traffic citations shouldn't even be allowed to go city revenue anyways, just encourages law enforcement officers to become revenue enhancement officers.
AaronD 3 months, 2 weeks ago
"It should be easy to close the gap with trafic citations, which I'd be more than glad to see."
I hope not. Using traffic citations solely for the purpose of revenue collection is a BAD idea. It should ONLY be used as a safety measure.
Sundance 3 months, 2 weeks ago
What did the new tax commissioner have to say about it?
EarlyBird 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Never heard of this problem when Dan Ray was running things. New citizens of Rockdale, you got what you deserve.
Conyers_Resident 3 months, 2 weeks ago
This article covers a budget issue for the City of Conyers. The city collects its taxes separately from the county. The city uses the property value established by the Tax Assessor's office to make the decision regarding the tax rate it needs to cover the budget. I do not understand comments that are being made about the Tax Commissioner. Why should he comment when he has nothing to do with the situation?
(Also, I appreciate Police Department we have in Conyers. I've lived here for 30 years, and never known them to harass drivers with traffic tickets without cause.)
ClaytonBigsby 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Like it or not, traffic fine revenue does help operate the City. No, tickets should NOT be used as a revenue producer. That said, it should be like shooting fish in a barrel to raise that much money; ticket the buffoons that block intersections, speed through school zones, and the one that has gotten really bad--rolling through stop signs. I see it every single day. Clark, I think the video equipment that exists today would make it pretty tough to "make up" offenses. I don't want the City to write tickets merely to close the budget gap; I want them to write tickets to people who "just don't care" and COINCIDENTALLY close the budget gap. I wouldn't care if we almost became a modern day Ludowici (some of you may have to Google that).
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