Dougherty County employees may see bonus check soon

ALBANY, Ga. – Commissioners are considering giving all county employees a big extra check as the 2020 budget comes to an encouraging finish. COVID-19 threw some curve balls at this year’s budget and officials weren’t sure what the outcome would be. However, the county ended up performing very well despite these unprecedented times.

“When we were here back in June, setting the budget, we were all scared to death about COVID and what would happen. And you see the budget was 5 million and five for your local option sales tax. You actually received 2 million and 97,000. So local option sales tax is 38 percent or five percent above budget,” says Dougherty County financial consultant Ed Wall.

And although COVID-19 may be keeping potential shoppers out of stores, there has been a notable increase in online sales. Which is helping make up for lost revenue in a big way.

“Nobody’s going to restaurants, stores, aren’t shopping. But evidently, they’re buying at Amazon.com on the internet. The State of Georgia Department of Revenue collects the sales taxes on your behalf and they won’t give you point of sale information. We don’t know where that’s coming from, but every client I’ve got in the state is having results like you’re having and sales taxes are above budget,” says Wall.

As a result, the commission board wants to pay it forward and give all part-time and full time employees a bonus check of up to $800 dollars.

“Because of the times we are going through, in light of COVID and the lack of money circulating through our community, I think this is out of the box thinking,” says commissioner Victor Edwards.