Dalton close to setting budget

Published 1:47 pm Monday, December 5, 2016

DALTON, Ga. — At this time last year, the Dalton City Council was just three days away from holding the first public hearing on its 2016 budget.

But this year, the council has yet to set a date for the two required public hearings, and Mayor Dennis Mock says the budget hasn’t been completed.

“We are very close, but we aren’t quite there yet,” he said. “Not having a city administrator has slowed us down. But our department heads and our finance department have been working hard on this.”

Former city administrator Ty Ross stepped down in September, and council members say they want to have further discussions about what they want and expect from that position before engaging in a search to find a new administrator.

The city’s fiscal year 2017 starts in Jan. 1, and Mock says that he fully expects to present the budget at public hearings and for the City Council to approve it before the end of the year.

“We are close, but we are going to have to make some hard choices,” he said. “It seems like ever year, our needs are greater than our revenue, but we do have to live within our means.”

It isn’t unusual for local governments to approve the budgets for their next fiscal year just before the end of their current fiscal year. Last year, for instance, the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners didn’t approve the county’s 2016 budget until Dec. 28.

The 2016 budget approved by the City Council last year contained some $33.1 million in spending, up from $32.1 million in spending in the 2015 budget.

The 2016 budget projected some $31.6 million in total revenue. The largest single source of revenue for the city is the $10 million transfer payment from Dalton Utilities, up from $9.6 million in 2015. The city receives 5 percent of the utility’s revenue.

The second largest source of revenue is property tax collections, which were expected to remain largely unchanged next year at some $7.9 million.

The budget contained a deficit of about $1.5 million, which officials say they plan to cover by drawing down the city’s fund balance.