The Dalton City Council is scheduled to vote on a $41.3 million 2024 budget when the council members meet Monday at 6 p.m. in City Hall.
The meeting is open to the public and will be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
At press time, there had been no changes to the budget proposal the council members reviewed earlier this week, but it could be changed by Monday.
The proposed operating budget calls for no property tax increase, holding the property tax rate steady at 1.936 mills.
The proposed budget would be up about 8% from the $38.2 million budgeted for 2023.
Revenues are projected to be about $28.9 million, up about 3.3% over projected 2023 revenues.
The proposed budget anticipates about $8.5 million in property tax collections and another $15.4 million in other taxes.
Though the property tax rate would remain the same, projected property tax revenues would be down about $92,000 due to expanded homestead exemptions for senior citizens passed by voters in November.
Previously, the city exempted up to $75,000 of value from taxation for residents 65 and older if they had a household income of up to $35,000. For residents 70 and older, they exempted up to $150,000, regardless of income.
The ballot measures passed by voters increase the homestead exemption income level for residents 65 and older to $40,000 and the exemption to $150,000. For those 70 and older, the exemption increases to $250,000, and there’s still no income limit.
The proposed budget forecasts $16.7 million in transfers to the city, including $13.7 million from Dalton Utilities. Dalton Utilities pays the city each year a transfer payment set at the larger of $10.5 million or 5% of the utility’s total revenue. That transfer payment was $12.1 million in 2023.
Public safety is the largest spending category in the budget.
Fire department spending would rise to $11.4 million from $9.9 million budgeted for 2023. Police department spending would increase to $10.7 million from $10.4 million in 2023.
Public works spending would be $8.955 million, an increase of about 4% from the 2023 budget.
Parks and Recreation Department spending would be $4.2 million, nearly 10% higher than the 2023 adopted budget.
The proposed budget includes a 4% cost-of-living pay increase for city employees. In terms of percentage increase, one of the biggest increases in the budget is payments to other agencies, which is slated to rise from $1,000 in the 2023 budget to $26,000 next year, a 2,500% rise.
That is due largely to the city providing funding to the GreenHouse in 2024 for forensic/juvenile interview services which was not in the 2023 budget. In 2023, that service was done in-house at the Dalton Police Department.
The GreenHouse provides services to victims of child and sexual abuse in Whitfield and Murray counties.
Administrative spending is slated to rise from $685,975 in the 2023 budget to $991,000 in 2024, a 44.47% increase. and spending by Dalton Municipal Court would increase from $513,470 to $645,000, a 25.62% increase.
The city court increase is due to the court filling a court administrator position which was not in the 2023 budget.
The increase to the administration budget is primarily related to adding the position of assistant city administrator which was not in the 2023 budget.
The proposed budget includes $264,000 for the Dalton-Whitfield County Public Library, which would be unchanged from 2023.