Fulton County commissioners approved a 2024 budget Wednesday just slightly larger than the $1.3 billion package county staff presented.
Last-minute amendments from Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman and Commissioner Bob Ellis added $362,496 to the total.
County staff originally proposed a $917.2 million General Fund, but commissioners’ earlier requests raised that to $953.7 million. That’s more than the county expects to take in, so the shortfall will be taken from county reserves. Commissioners were required to pass a budget by their second meeting in January.
Last year’s budget included an assumption that commissioners would raise the property tax rate, Commissioner Chair Robb Pitts said. But they didn’t, leaving it at 8.87 mills, so finance staff told commissioners last fall there would be no money available for new or expanded programs, he said.
Since then, however, various commissioners put in requests to add $60 million to the proposed budget, which would require hiking the millage rate to 10.1 mills, Pitts said.
“For the record, I did not have any requests,” he said. Neither did Commissioner Bridget Thorne, and requests from Commissioner Bob Ellis canceled each other out, Pitts said.
Commissioner Natalie Hall sought to add $54 million to the budget, including about $37 million for the sheriff’s office, plus staff increases for other law enforcement and judicial functions. She said she never asked for a property tax rate hike.
“If you want to raise the millage rate that is on you,” Hall said to other commissioners. Instead, county finance staff should “do the job of balancing the budget” somehow, she said.
Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. sought to add everything from Hall’s list plus about $2 million more.
Commissioner Dana Barrett wanted to add $22.8 million, including $9 million for the sheriff’s office, $5 million for a “Healthcare Reserve” fund, and $4.6 million for the district attorney’s office.
Arrington and Barrett also wanted to spend $9.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds: $500,000 on a summer youth program and the rest to fund all current Project ORCA jobs through 2024. Project ORCA is the county effort to eliminate a huge court backlog; currently allocated funding is expected to run out in June unless commissioners allocate more.
The only changes adopted Wednesday, however, were several increases and one decrease from Abdur-Rahman, plus another decrease proposed by Ellis.
Sheriff Patrick Labat had asked for $4.5 million to pay double overtime. The amendment reduced that funding by nearly $2.4 million.
Abdur-Rahman’s amendment added more than $2 million to arts programs, $200,000 to the county marshal’s office and $100,000 to senior outreach. She wanted to put $300,000 into the Taste of SoFu festival, but Ellis cut that to $75,000.
The amended budget passed 4-2, opposed by Arrington and Hall.
Debate continues on future funding for Project ORCA. Budget planners worked under the assumption that departments with specially-hired ORCA workers would see normal attrition as the year went on, Chief Financial Officer Sharon Whitmore told commissioners. That would need $9 million to get through all of 2024.
If instead new people are hired to fill vacant jobs until the end of 2024, the cost would rise to $14 million, Whitmore said.
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