Later this month Dade County workers will begin furloughs for the second fall in a row, and another area Georgia county is considering following suit.
"They're not [happy], but they understand it's not something we just make up," Dade County executive Ted Rumley said of the furloughed workers. "Times are not much better than they were last year, if any."
Whitfield County Commission Chairman Mike Babb said furloughs are "becoming more and more of a serious discussion" among leaders.
Officials in Bradley and Hamilton counties in Tennessee, as well as Catoosa and Walker counties in Georgia, say furloughs are unlikely in the foreseeable future, but they could become a stronger possibility if the recession deepens or continues.
Dade employees will lose eight hours per two-week pay period, Rumley said.
Last year mandatory days off saved the county $175,000 in wages and salaries and $6,000 in utilities from closing buildings, records show. The furloughs will begin Sept. 20, about the same time the county began furloughs last year. In 2009, the down days ended just before Christmas, as Rumley hopes to do this year.
In addition to the furloughs, Rumley said, the county administration office and tax assessor's office will be closed on Fridays. The tax commissioner's office also is looking at ways to cut a few of its hours, he said.
He said commissioners weighed the options of raising taxes or requiring furloughs and decided to leave the taxes flat. Some entities, he said, including Walker County and the Dade County Board of Education, are not facing furloughs because their tax rates went up.
Babb said Whitfield County has included an option for furloughs in its budget the last two years but has managed to avoid them. That may not be the case in the new year: Property tax collections are expected to be down $1 million to $1.5 million due to devaluation of property.
"We haven't had to use furloughs but that may change in the 2011 fiscal year," he said.
Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey said his county has avoided furloughs by consolidating jobs and not filling positions when employees leave.
"You can't predict the future - you can guess, but it's tough to be accurate," Ramsey said. "We watch every day and hope we don't have to do [furloughs]."
Bradley County Mayor Gary Davis also is cautiously optimistic.
"We were expecting, and it's turning out to be, a tough budget year but we're confident we'll get through it," he said. "Come next year's budget it may be really tough, because this year was tough."
Contact Andy Johns at ajohns@timesfreepress.com or call 423-757-6324.