COVINGTON, Ga. — County officials posted a 2022 budget plan Friday that revises an earlier version to show additional cuts in spending and a delay in all new hiring until January.

The Newton County Board of Commissioners was to see the revised version of the proposed 2022 budget Tuesday, July 20, at a special called meeting at 5:30 p.m., followed by a public hearing at 6 p.m., at the Historic Courthouse at 1124 Clark St. in Covington. 

County Manager Lloyd Kerr on June 15 asked for a month's delay in approval of the budget after saying he wanted to make enough cuts to preserve across-the-board pay increases.

County finance officials published a revised 2022 budget Friday afternoon on the county website that includes cuts from the original budget commissioners were given on June 1.

The new version contains a revised General Fund total of $77.6 million, which is a 1.4% increase in expenditures from the 2021 budget. 

All funds in the revised budget total $118.6 million and include 41% of additional spending, However, the increase was “largely due to budgeted expenditures in the 2017 SPLOST fund” which gets its revenues from a 1% sales tax, according to budget documents.

The original 2022 spending plan totaled $78.1 million in the General Fund and $119.2 million for all funds.

The revised budget also includes 30 new full-time and two new part-time positions — and none will be filled until January 2022.

Originally, it included 32 new full-time positions — with only half scheduled to wait until January 2022 to be filled.

Commissioners generally have indicated they wanted to approve a property tax rate lower than the current 12.916 mills to offset an anticipated increase in tax bills.

Many Newton County property owners received higher assessments this year in response to rising land values. 

But finance officials also worked to cut the proposed 2022 budget to preserve pay increases they say the county government needs to compete for new and existing employees in a tight labor market.

Increases of between 3.5% and 4.5% are proposed for the 694 employees on the county’s salary grade plan.

The employees include those in departments headed by constitutional officers. They will be needed to recruit and retain employees in the current tight labor market in metro Atlanta, Kerr said.

Kerr said a pay increase for all positions was needed in such departments as Public Works where some jobs have a starting pay as low as $11 an hour. An equivalent private sector position is paying about $13 an hour, Kerr said.

He said he began working in 2018 on plans to increase pay for county workers after finding Newton County government was paying an average of 20% less than other area public and private sector employers.

An additional public hearing on the revised plan is set for Aug. 3 at 6 p.m., followed by final approval of the budget at a 7 p.m. meeting, at the Historic Courthouse at 1124 Clark St. in Covington.