Correction

A previous version of this report mistakenly said the federal government gives states the rights to valuate and tax property. The federal government never bestowed that power because it was a power the states already possessed, ever since the creation of the U.S. Constitution.

VALDOSTA — Taxes. 

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes to pay debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare.

States have the power to valuate and tax property, and states have turned the collection of those levies over to city and county governments.

Since the Republic is self-governed, the idea behind local taxation is that the people who live in a city or county determine what level of services are desired and how much they are willing to pay for those services.

That’s the principle. 

Still, there is always a tug of war — the constant tension between people wanting lower taxes but more services.

The foundation of government services is manpower, the men and women who are listed on government payrolls — payrolls funded by taxpayer dollars — from the federal level all the way down to local counties and cities.

Communities with bigger populations will obviously have a larger government workforce and a larger payroll. Other factors also affect how much a government pays out, such as an area’s cost of living and a government’s need to offer competitive pay in order to get and retain employees.

But an easy way to fairly compare how much or how little local governments spend on their employees is looking at the percentage that payroll (salaries, wages and benefits) makes up a government’s total budget.

In the SunLight Project coverage area — Valdosta, Dalton, Thomasville, Milledgeville, Tifton and Moultrie, Ga., and Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., along with the surrounding counties — the difference in payroll percentages is strikingly broad, ranging from a low 15 percent (Live Oak) to a high 69.8 percent (Dalton).

The Numbers, City by City

Dalton’s payroll percentage of almost 70 percent — the highest in the coverage area — represents the $23 million the city (population 34,000) spent on its 385 employees in the current yearly budget.

That number doesn’t even include the payroll for Dalton Utilities, which is owned by the city but operates as a separate entity and provides electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater and other services to the area.

Not far behind is Moultrie (population 14,300), which is currently spending 64.8 percent ($8.2 million) of the yearly budget on its 209 employees.

From there, the payroll percentages drop way down, with Milledgeville (population 18,900) spending 40 percent ($13.1 million) on 217 employees.

Thomasville, a similar city of 18,800 people, has a 35 percent ($14.1 million) payroll rate for 270 employees.

Thomasville is like Dalton in that its utility provider, Thomasville Utilities, acts as a separate entity from the rest of city government.

Valdosta (population 56,400) comes in at 36.2 percent ($30.9 million) for its 549 employees.

The city of Live Oak, Fla. (population 7,000) spends the least on its employees by far, shelling out 15 percent ($3.8 million) for 57 people.

The 2008 recession that ravaged the U.S. economy has played out in different ways when it comes to the size of local government.

Some cities were forced to shrink their workforce in the face of declining revenues. Others stayed the same. Some started spending even more on government employees.

Dalton went from spending 61.1 percent ($19 million) on payroll in 2008 to spending 69.8 percent currently. The city’s payroll costs are soon expected to top $24 million, an increase of about 26 percent from a decade ago.

Dalton Mayor Dennis Mock said a large part of that increase is due to the city’s efforts to make its pension plan fully funded, though he could not say exactly how much of the increase in wages and benefits has gone to the pension.

The city closed its pension plan to employees hired after July 1, 2002. Officials said that will reduce the city’s liability in decades to come, but in the short run, with no new employees paying into the plan, it costs the city more each year to fund.

While Dalton’s payroll payouts have increased in the past decade, its overall number of employees has dropped during the same period, shrinking from 444 in 2008 to its current group of 385 (a 13 percent decrease).

“I really do believe that shows that we are trying to make sure that we are providing only the services our citizens want and demand and doing that in the most efficient manner,” Mock said.

Starting in 2008, under then-mayor David Pennington, the city council made a concerted effort to streamline city services, combining its building inspection and zoning department with that of Whitfield County and cutting garbage pickup to once a week from twice a week.

While the county hasn’t been cutting as aggressively as it did then, Mock said council members have been careful about adding new positions.

Thomasville city government has added numbers in the past decade, going from 238 employees in 2007 to 270 in 2017.

The growth is primarily from an increase in the level of service for public works and planning and a switch from outsourced fleet service to internal staff, the city said.

But other than that, the city has seen little government upsizing in recent years, City Manager Steve Sykes said.

Police and fire departments have the same number of employees as they did a decade ago. The same is true for the city manager’s office, risk management, financial services and building, Sykes said.

In contrast, Valdosta has cut down on its government workforce in recent years, not only in total number of employees but also in payroll percentage.

The city has reduced its employee count significantly, going from 679 in 2009 to 549 in 2016.

The city has also gone from spending 40.5 percent ($33.7 million) of its budget on employees in 2009 to 36.2 percent (30.9 million) in 2016.

Instead of firing people, the city chose to cut several positions that were left vacant by people quitting or retiring. Instead of finding new people to fill the spots, the city eliminated the jobs altogether and transferred those duties to other positions.

City leaders got rid of spots they believed they could do without, such as assistant to the city manager, economic development coordinator, assistant city engineer and inspections director.

The city’s reduction comes on the tail-end of a 25 percent population increase from 2000-10, so even though the city grew in size, the number of government employees still decreased.

“It’s just logical that when you grow, you’ve got to add people, but what we’ve tried to do is work smarter and use technology in a lot of ways,” City Manager Larry Hanson said.

Hanson

“We did not do furloughs. We did not eliminate positions with people in them. We really critically examined our organization and (asked) how can we operate more efficiently by changing job responsibilities, combining things, getting people trained in (more) areas.”

The loss of positions meant more work for the remaining employees to handle, but Hanson said they try to constantly evaluate and recalculate to keep workloads at a manageable level.

Even though the economy has started to turn around, Valdosta has not seen government revenues go up much. But adding more people to government payroll just for the sake of it is not really the city’s goal and doesn’t always solve problems, Assistant City Manager Mark Barber said.

“Most of the time, adding folks is not the solution,” he said.

Instead, the city is only looking to “right-size” its workforce, Hanson said.

Tifton (population 16,800) is another city that has cut its workforce in the last decade, and the drop has been drastic.

In 2007, the city had 301 employees, with salaries totaling $8.7 million. Now, the city’s government workforce is less than half that: 137 employees with salaries coming to $4.5 million.

The city managed the monumental reduction mainly by outsourcing utilities, maintenance, and public works to ESG, Inc., garbage collection to Golden Environmental and selling CityNet to PlantNet.

So the services still exist, but they are privatized instead of being handled by local government. 

Gary Kincade, a Tift County businessmen who has served on various government boards and commissions, said when it comes to the size and efficacy of local government, the question is if residents are lacking any services. Right now, he doesn’t feel they are. 

Live Oak, which has the lowest payroll percentage (15 percent) in the coverage area, needs some government growth — a lot of it, actually, City Manager Ron Williams said.

For many years, before Williams was hired, the city refused to grow, he said. 

The city cut and cut until there was nothing left but bone.

Now Williams said the city is undermanned and small as far as its service mandates. Roads, pipes and facilities are all in need of repair and maintenance.

His hope is that by raising rates for certain services, the government will be able to upsize and adequately serve its residents.

But Sykes cautioned against government growing too large, especially at the federal level.

”There is a tendency for government to get too big,” he said. “If run like a business, citizens get better value from government.”

The Numbers, County by County

On the high end of government payroll expenses is Whitfield County (population 104,500), which spent 63.4 percent ($34.9 million) of its yearly budget on salaries, wages and benefits for 540 employees.

Not far behind is Thomas County (population 45,200) with a payroll rate of 60 percent ($20.2 million) of its total budget. The county employs 353 people.

In contrast, Baldwin County (population 45,100) has about the same number of employees (348) but spends only 42 percent ($12.5 million) of its budget on payroll.

Also on the low end is Lowndes County (population 114,600), which spends 31.8 percent ($33.2 million) on 602 employees.

Lowndes, similar to other local governments, was forced to downsize in the wake of the 2008 recession. In 2010, the county cut its workforce by around two dozen.

That meant eliminating positions already vacant or offering retirement to some who were qualified and willing. But it also meant terminating positions and dispersing those duties to other people.

County Manager Joe Pritchard said laying off people was the hardest thing he’s had to do in his career. But the revenues weren’t there, and the county has to present a balanced budget at the end of each year.

Since then, revenues have remained flat and employee numbers have stayed roughly the same.

But it’s important to note while mayors and city councils have full budgetary control over all their departments, that is not the case for counties.

A county’s board of commissioners usually only has direct control over a part of a county’s vast network of departments, which limits how much power the board has over payroll expenses.

For example, Lowndes has 13 departments that fall under the county commission’s control, such as engineering, finance, animal control and fire rescue.

But there are 13 other county departments — such as the sheriff’s office, board of elections and the courts — that are controlled not by the board but by elected and appointed officials or constitutional officers.

So while the commission approves the overall budget for these departments, it cannot demand a reduction of force in these areas or dictate how much overtime and benefits the employees can receive.

All the cuts Lowndes made came from departments under the board’s control. Now it’s a constant balance of remaining cost-effective while not overworking the employees that remain, Pritchard said.

“Are they doing the job? Yes, but we do have to give them some relief on occasion … It’s like the engine in your car. How high of rpm do you want to run it and for how long?” he said.

County Clerk Paige Dukes related government work to goods and services, saying the cost of those services is sometimes beyond the county’s control.

Dukes

“The county can’t control the cost of goods and services anymore than someone in private business can or a private citizen going to the grocery store can control the cost of those groceries,” she said.

“So there’s a lot of what drives the cost of government that elected officials have no control over.”

Randy Harris, Suwannee County administrator, said the size of government is determined by what level of services it wants to provide to its residents.

And there are some governments, he said, that have more people involved that provide less services. Very often, the extra personnel are doing nothing more than shuffling paper around, he said.

“They’re creating studies, shuffling paper and doing a lot of what I believe is nothing but nonsense that isn’t helping the average taxpayer at all,” Harris said. “We could do the same thing. I could hire a bunch of people to sit around doing studies all day that don’t amount to anything in the end, and that’s what a lot of governments in administrative services do.”

Harris said this environment of more people for less services is mostly created out of political pressure directed at officials. It causes government to grow bigger than absolutely necessary.

For Suwannee County, Harris said, the population does not demand that many services, and since becoming county administrator, he has shrunk the number of county employees by half.

He reduced some areas that fell under the county commissioners by not filling positions after they become vacant. In the case of administration, he went from a staff of seven full-time people to a staff of three full-time and one part-time.

“And only recently did I increase it to three full-time,” Harris said. “Over that time, we have provided more services with fewer people. I think government should operate as lean as possible.”

The county predominantly focuses on maintaining roads, parks, garbage facilities, the sheriff’s office, libraries and fire and rescue services.

To provide these services, the size of Suwannee County’s government is justified, he said. Some departments, such as the roads department, have one man for every truck to cut back on the county paying salaries.

“We take a very conservative approach to employing full-time people,” he said.

Harris said this is typical of rural communities with a small tax base, and that bloated government is more often found in metropolitan areas.

For people in those bigger cities, they demand more services and pay more money for those services, so the government grows.

“They don’t mind paying higher taxes,” Harris said. “Why does anyone want to live in New York City? The taxes are through the roof. But the people are demanding more in services and that’s what you end up with.”

For Harris, governments should grow slowly and only when bursting at the seams.

If the county brought in more people, the amount of services it would need to provide would go up, causing the county to need to grow. Other than that type of circumstance, government should be as small as possible for the demand of services, Harris said.

Over time, the Colquitt County government has experimented with lowering the number of employees and later brought it back more or less to the original level, and during the past 10 years, its number of employees has remained relatively unchanged at 264.

At $7.9 million in the current fiscal year ending June 30, salaries (not including benefits) account for some 35 percent of the county’s overall budget.

Currently, county commissioners have decided to turn roadside grass spraying and mowing over to a private company that performs the same work for the state, Commissioner Johnny Hardin said.

Commissioners plan to examine how that stab at privatization works out and have not committed to the concept. Prior to trying this idea, the mowing and roadside spraying were performed by workers from a temp service and county prison inmates.

“If we’re not going the right way, we (can) always go back and do it ourselves,” Hardin said of looking at how the private company performs.

The concept has the potential to save money. 

“(We’re) looking at our overall costs — cost of equipment, cost of fuel … cost of broken equipment,” Hardin said.

During the last couple of years, the vehicle shop and building maintenance department have been combined, Hardin said, resulting in some added efficiency. The county was able to reduce some employees in that transition.

“It seems like we did a pretty good job in doing so,” he said.

Thomas County’s government has also remained relatively the same size during the last decade.

In contrast, the number of full-time workers employed by Whitfield County has risen 8.9 percent since 2013, from 496 to 540. But total spending on salaries and benefits has risen almost 35 percent, from $25.7 million (60 percent of total spending) to $34.9 million (or 63.4 percent of total budget).

Board of Commissioners Chairman Lynn Laughter said public safety has driven much of the increase in both hiring and spending.

Until two years ago, half of the county’s 10 fire stations were manned by just one firefighter. The county’s fire department is a mix of full-time and volunteer firefighters. So, when the sole firefighter on duty at one of those stations got a call, he would often arrive at the scene of a fire and have to wait on volunteers to arrive, a situation Laughter said is dangerous to the firefighters and the public.

“We added 15 firefighters last year and nine this year,” she said. “Now, all of our fire stations are manned by two people around the clock, seven days a week.”

Commissioners have also focused on increasing pay for public safety employees. From 2014 to 2016, many county employees got no pay increase. But in 2015, public safety employees got a 3 percent cost-of-living-adjustment.

This year, most county employees will get a 3 percent COLA starting July 1. And certified peace officers in the sheriff’s office will get an additional 2 percent increase.

“When I became a commissioner four years ago, I found that our firefighters and deputies were being paid quite a bit less than what the city (of Dalton) and other counties around us were paying,” Laughter said.

The first time she ran for office, Laughter talked to a sheriff’s lieutenant who said he was making $10,000 less than what the city of Dalton paid for the same position.

“We were spending $60,000 to train a firefighter or a deputy, then losing them after they’d get some experience. We still haven’t fully caught up (with other jurisdictions), but we’ve made some progress,” she said.

By The Numbers

Valdosta Government

• 549 Employees
• 9 Departments
• $30.9 million payroll
• 9.7 employees per 1,000 residents

Lowndes County Government

• 602 Employees
• 26 Departments
• $33.2 million payroll
• 5.25 employees per 1,000 residents
• (11.4 if only counting unincorporated residents)

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Thomas Lynn, Patti Dozier, Charles Oliver, Will Woolever, Alan Mauldin and Eve Guevara, along with the writer, team leader John Stephen. Kimberly Cannon also contributed to the report.

To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.