Even with high gas prices and an increase in jail expenses, Dade County, Georgia, was able to draft a balanced budget, said Don Townsend, the county's chief financial officer and county clerk.
Presented to the Dade County Board of Commissioners on Thursday night, the budget for the 2023 fiscal year is projected to be $13,415,000, compared to a $13,144,000 budget for the 2022 fiscal year.
"That was an actual 2.06% increase over last year's budget, in a time that inflation has been out of control, mostly in the country, but also in Dade County as well," Townsend said at Thursday night's meeting. "We have seen everything go up, mostly fuel, of course. Fuel has doubled and is on its way to tripling."
Other notable increases, Townsend said, were a 22% jump in property insurance and a 12.6% increase in health insurance costs. He also said the county was proposing a 7% cost-of-living increase for county employees.
Thursday's meeting was informational, and the public has a week to ask questions and review information before the commission votes on the budget this week. The commissioners will consider adopting the budget at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Dade County Administrative Building. The county's budget cycle ends June 30.
The budget is available on the county's website. Public safety has the largest budget at $7,143,600 (53%), and the other categories are general government, public works, health and welfare, and culture and recreation. Several departments gave presentations and took questions from commissioners.
At the meeting, county resident John Talbot was concerned the budget wasn't made available earlier so citizens could ask better-informed questions. Townsend said the summary had been available to the public for a week.
Commissioner Philip Hartline said officials have been working for months on the budget for the county's 48 departments, and they didn't want to put out information before it was ready.
"Now, you have seven days to take it home, and we have another meeting to come to ask them informed questions if you want. We're not voting on anything tonight," Hartline said. "This (meeting) is to get it out to the public."
After some back-and-forth, Talbot said he would like to have had 24 hours to review the full budget - not just the summary - before the introductory meeting.
(READ MORE: Dade County, Georgia, invites stakeholders to take survey about community needs)
Rodney Ross, representing the fire chiefs of Dade County, said he wanted to start giving the county's volunteer firefighters a small stipend every time they're called out to a fire. Ross said he didn't want to "throw off" on the younger generation, but he said they don't volunteer for the fire department like other generations.
Sheriff Ray Cross said his office is understaffed for deputies and hasn't been able to replace patrol cars because they simply weren't available. That has forced the Sheriff's Office to do more costly repairs on its vehicles, he said.
The state has closed down mental health care facilities, and law enforcement has to step into that gap in services, he said.
"They expect the sheriffs to take that on and deal with these mental health patients, and we don't know how," Cross said. "We don't have the facilities, we don't have the treatments. It's a burden for all sheriffs, especially North Georgia."
Kathy Johnson, director of the Department of Human Services Division of Family & Children Services, said in fiscal year 2022 the agency investigated 246 cases of child abuse. In that same period, 16 children were taken into foster care - and she said the agency is working to keep foster children in the county despite it only having eight foster care homes.
Tim Easter is chairman of the Dade County Board of Assessors. He said residents have until June 27 to appeal the assessment of their recently-issued property re-evaluations. Even though some people complain about the hard deadline, "the law is very clear," Easter said.
(READ MORE: Dade County residents to see tax increase despite millage rollback)
Carolyn Bradford, Juvenile Court administrator, said her office covers three counties: Chattooga, Walker and Dade. The office's budget is the same, but cases are up, and she said she thinks it's because of what families have had to endure during the pandemic.
Carolyn Hixon, with the county Board of Elections, said her department is in need of poll workers for this fall's election.
Hixon said she told Gov. Brian Kemp, back when he was secretary of state: "If it wasn't for the little ol' gray-headed people in America, there would be no elections."
In the four years he's been in the position, William Back, executive director of Dade County's economic development office, said the county has nearly doubled the number of employees in its industrial park to about 1,100 workers. Wages are up more than 30% for most companies, which he said is a national trend. The county's biggest industry besides manufacturing has been tourism - all through private enterprise, he said.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Townsend said it's been a hard year for the county, but officials have pulled together as a team to do the best they can.
Department presentations were a good way for residents of Dade to learn about county services and the people who do the work, he said.
"It's been good information for the commissioners and public to let us all know who we all are and put a face with a name," he said.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.