Former Dunwoody City Councilman Robert Wittenstein raises concern over City operational funding, suggests raising the tax millage rate for Public Safety.

https://roughdraftatlanta.com/2024/02/07/the-city-of-dunwoody-is-headed-for-a-slow-motion-train-wreck/

Friend and former Dunwoody City Councilman Robert Wittenstein has penned an op-ed piece in Rough Draft Atlanta (Dunwoody Reporter) discussing city finances but I doubt he was involved in titling the piece "a slow motion train wreck". I could be wrong, but that's not his style.

That being said, I don't disagree with the information shared as I too have been saying that our revenue is not keeping up with our operational expenses and we can only burn through reserves and Federal funds for so long. Something will need to be adjusted. Going to the voters to raise the millage cap for specific city departments and operational programs is one suggestion that has been floated but more budget review and community discussions will need to be done before I go along with that idea.

The article was posted in a few Facebook groups so I tried to clarify that all city revenue is not the same and that some revenue can not be used for operational expenses. For transparency sake, I'm posting my reply to those Facebook inquiries immediately below.

Thank you for posting as this is no surprise to me as I have raised these issues numerous times in the recent past. The city basically gets three streams of funding, SPLOST that can be used for various types of capital (or stuff) but not operating expenses, general revenue that can be used for anything including operational and COVID related Federal Funds that could be used for specific items but also includes some operating. Our operational costs are going up, we are at the max tax rate and are starting to use limited Federal funds to fund expansion of services like ambulance and police (both of which are needed and the police item is actually coming up Monday for discussion). The issue is that this Federal funding is over by 2026 therefore if we want to keep ambulance and police staffing we will need to find more funds to operate or cut other operational services. Costs are going up and our increases in the tax digest may not be able to match expenses therefore it is being watched carefully. There may be tidbits to pull out of the links below, please review.

https://dunwoodynorth.blogspot.com/2023/10/dunwoody-councilman-john-heneghan.html

https://dunwoodynorth.blogspot.com/2023/10/dunwoody-city-council-meeting-video.html