Dalton schools facing more budget cuts

Published 5:02 am Saturday, March 5, 2011

Dalton Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hawkins said it appears the school system will need to cut at least $4 million from the budget for the fiscal year that will begin July 1.

This marks the third straight year officials have worked through multi-million dollar cuts to their annual budget. The budget this year is $56.7 million and was balanced with $5.5 million in cuts because of a shrinking local tax base and a decrease in state funds.

Hawkins said officials are planning for at least a 10 percent ($2.6 million) reduction in local property tax revenue because of property re-evaluation, a $1.4 million loss of federal stimulus money that propped up last year’s budget and further reductions in state funding.

By this time last year, Hawkins had publicly recommended specific areas from which to cut, including the possibility of saving $2 million by cutting positions. Board member Mark Orr asked Hawkins at a public budget retreat meeting at Dalton State College on Friday to lay out his suggested cuts. Hawkins declined to recommend anything, however, until board members approve some guiding principles, saying he didn’t want to announce anything prematurely.

“Right now I’ve got more cuts identified than we need,” Hawkins said. “We’re still in that feasibility area. We don’t want to go say it unless we can do it.”

Board members are expected to approve a set of guiding budget principles at their next meeting on March 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Dalton City Hall. Last year’s principles were to “minimize classroom impact, preserve employment, maintain operating cash, and pause yet preserve capacity.” Preserving capacity refers to scaling down but not totally eliminating major services, like the gifted program.

Hawkins said that after the board sets its budget directives, administrators will meet with employees, discuss specific cuts to be presented to the board, then ask for the board to vote on a preliminary budget in May that will be finalized in June.

It’s unclear whether a local property tax increase might be considered to cover the shortfall.

“I speak only on behalf of (myself) that I would like to see the millage rate stay the same,” Board of Education Chairman Steve Williams said.

“The right circumstances would have to present themselves to bring that back up,” board member Danny Crutchfield said. “You can’t just say we’re not going to raise it. We have to be responsible with that … We also have to remember we still have to take care of our kids and our system and our staff.”

“I appreciate that very much,” Hawkins responded.

Board members last year considered raising the property tax rate from $7.85 per $1,000 in value on 100 percent of the property’s value to $8.13 per $1,000 in value. The proposal met with criticism from dozens of residents, including Mayor David Pennington.

Hawkins said officials forecast they’ll collect $53 million in total revenue for the upcoming budget year and at this point are looking at keeping a $6.5 million fund balance. That level of fund balance would cover expenses while the school system waits for tax collections to arrive, and it also includes $1.5 million in case state and local revenues come in lower than projected.

Several people at the meeting suggested ways to address the budget.

Theresa Link, the school system’s new chief financial officer, suggested board members consider raising the tuition rate for out-of-district students. Crutchfield said the school system should keep looking for creative ways to generate more revenue instead of focusing only on budget cuts and property taxes and fellow Board member Richard Fromm said Pennington offered last year to look at partnering with the school system in ways that would reduce costs.