Proposed 2023 Budget: Sales Taxes Eclipse Property Taxes
Tuesday, November 15th, 2022
The City of Dalton's proposed 2023 budget was presented for a public hearing on Monday night during a called meeting of the Mayor and Council. The budget is a landmark for the City, as it projects more revenue collected by sales taxes than property taxes. That benchmark has been a goal for Dalton Mayor David Pennington since his first mayoral campaign a decade ago.
"It’s not going to happen [while I'm in office], but I would like someday to be where property taxes are gone," Mayor Pennington said on Tuersday. "[I'd like for the City to be] where we’re doing everything off of sales taxes."
Cindy Jackson, the City's Chief Financial Officer, presented an overview of the budget at Monday night's meeting. Jackson noted that the City is projecting sales tax collections in the amount of $8.5 million in 2023, an increase of a million dollars over 2022. The City projects property tax revenues in 2023 of $9.3 million, but that projection includes some 2022 property taxes that are expected to arrive late due to property tax bills being delivered later than usual. The expected property taxes for 2023 are approximately $8.1 million. That projection was calculated at the "roll back" millage rate, with no increase in the property tax rate expected.
Mayor Pennington noted that bringing in more revenue from sales taxes than property taxes is the result not just of years of work to streamline the City budget, but also growth of the local economy.
"It's economic development," Mayor Pennington said. "We've become a retail center for all of northwest Georgia... it used to be that the property taxes were double or triple the sales taxes 20 years ago."
Jackson noted during her presentation that public safety accounts for 51% of the total budget expenditures at $20.3 million. The Public Works Department represents 21% of the budget at $8.6 million and the Parks and Recreation Department accounts for 2% of the budget at $3.8 million. The budget is mostly in line with the 2022 budget year, with increases in the budget for fuel and energy costs which are expected to rise. Jackson also noted that various repair and maintenance lines in the budget have been increased to reflect inflationary increases in various supply budget lines. The proposed 2023 budget can be reviewed by clicking here.
Adoption of the budget will be up for a vote at the Mayor and Council's regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, December 5th at 6:00 pm in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, 300 W. Waugh Street in Dalton.
