DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The DeKalb County Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a plan to double the annual stormwater fee that each homeowner pays, increasing it to nearly $100 this year, and then increasing it even more after that.
There would be no increases in what residents pay for drinking water or for wastewater services.
County leaders tried to make their case to taxpayers at a town hall meeting Monday night, conveying what Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said was the painful, unvarnished truth:
“You can expect to see an increase on your annual tax bill,” she said.
Cochran-Johnson and others leading the public meeting said the increase is unavoidable because DeKalb County's mostly-underground stormwater drainage system is aging out and falling apart, with drainage pipes collapsing under streets, causing dangerous sinkholes.
They said the county is out of money to fix it all— the budget for the stormwater system was $4 million in the red in 2021 and sank deeper into the red in 2022.
They said the county is receiving an average of 2,500 calls for help every year from residents reporting stormwater drainage problems, but there are not enough crews or materials to provide the help they need.
DeKalb County resident Clarence Wilmot attended the meeting, begging for help for his property. Before the meeting began, he told 11Alive he hopes for a fix for the property damage that he keeps seeing.
“These issues, water issues are eroding the property, destroying the property, and no one cares," Wilmot said, adding he could support the stormwater fee increase.
Cochran-Johnson was honest with the town hall attendees.
“Infrastructure that was once adequate ain’t anymore,” Cochran-Johnson told the taxpayers at the meeting.
She said the plan is to double the annual stormwater fee that residents pay in unincorporated DeKalb Couty and the City of Stockbridge. That means it will increase from the current $48 a year to $96 a year beginning in June, and then it will increase $12 in 2024 and again in 2025, to a total of $120 a year.
That’s an increase that averages 13 cents a day, she said, and it is the first increase in the county’s stormwater rates since 2004.
“Our taxes keep going up,” said DeKalb County resident Kathleen Andres. “There seems to be no end in sight, and everything just keeps escalating, and I don’t know how people can keep paying all these taxes and fees and everything else.”
Commissioners pointed out that even with the stormwater rate increases, the county’s stormwater rate would still be well below what others pay in other jurisdictions like the City of Decatur, for example, where residents pay $285 a year, according to county numbers provided at the meeting.
“This is all going to be imperative as we’re moving forward, and we need the money,” Cochran-Johnson said.
If the full DeKalb County Commission approves the increase on Tuesday, the increase will show up on the county's portion of the property tax bills that will be coming out in June.