The county commission voted 9-4 last week to adopt the 2013-14 consolidated budget, which included funds for School Resource Officers for all five DeKalb County schools.
The new spending plan voted in at last Tuesday’s commission meeting includes funding for four new SROs at DeKalb Middle, DeKalb West, Smithville Elementary and Northside Elementary schools.
A resource officer has already been in place at DCHS for several years.
The salaries and benefits of two of the additional resource officers will be paid from the county general budget.
The two remaining SROs will be funded from the school budget.
The new officers’ equipment and training will be pulled from the county general budget, and four used patrol cars for the SROs will be paid for out of the county general budget’s capital projects fund.
The officers will be hired by the sheriff’s department.
The new resource officers are expected to take their posts at the four school as soon as they have completed the necessary training.
Commissioners also voted 12-1 to leave the property tax rate at $1.62 per $100 of assessed value for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
Step-wage scales adopted for full-time employees of the sheriff's department and  full-time county general employees over the last two years apparently took care of any pay-raise issues, as none are budgeted.
Officials have said a wage scale will be developed this year for full-time employees of the ambulance service as well.
County Mayor Mike Foster said a budget amendment will be necessary to fund a planned solid-waste transfer station.
“We already have funding in place for it, Foster said. “We have saved money through the years to build it but we don't have it in there yet because we don't have an engineer report on it.
“We will do a budget amendment to the enterprise fund. If we don't do a transfer station, then we will have to develop a new landfill within the next year because the one we're in will be full by this time next year,” the mayor said.
Funding for health insurance for full-time county general employees under the Affordable Health Care Act was left in the county general budget, though the penalty provision of the new health-care law will not be enforced until 2015.
The employer mandate portion of the act includes a penalty for employers with more than 50 workers who do not provide a minimum standard of affordable health insurance.
The budget includes $17,500 in local matching funds for a grant the county fire department has applied for under the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.
If the department receives the funds, a $12,500 local match, or five percent, will be used for the purchase of a tanker truck and a $5,000 local match, also five percent, will be required for the purchase of additional equipment.
Appropriations for county budget for 2013-14 total $42,208,422.
One cent of the tax rate generates $42,953 in local money with a 7.7 percent delinquency rate figured into the equation.
The County General fund receives 82 cents of the $1.62 collected; the Highway/Public Works Department gets three cents; General Capital Projects accounts for 10 cents; 12 cents goes to debt service; and the General Purpose School Budget takes 55 cents.
For a PDF of the entire budget, visit WWW.smithvillereview.com.