Friday, September 22, 2000
Friday, September 22, 2000 |
| Council rolls back
millage
By JOHN MUNFORD Cancel the public hearings and any public outcry about a raise in property taxes for Peachtree City residents. It's not going to happen. Wednesday night, the City Council voted to roll back its millage rate to avoid raising property taxes. To cover the anticipated $275,000 shortfall the rollback would create in the upcoming budget, council decided to dip into the city's cash reserve account, dropping it to approximately $1.4 million. Council voted unanimously to roll back the millage to 3.84, which would raise the same amount of property taxes as council received this year. The action came the same night council was scheduled to hold a public hearing on increasing property taxes through property reassessments by holding the millage rate. City staff had recommended holding the current millage of 4.06, which would effectively raise an estimated $275,000 in taxes. City Manager Jim Basinger told council again Wednesday that the city didn't want to take funds from the cash reserve since it was trying to build a three-month supply of funds for emergencies. A look into the millage rollback was recommended by Councilman Robert Brooks at the previous council meeting, and he pressed the issue again Wednesday night. Brooks said the city could meet its goal of having three months' worth cash reserve on hand in next year's budget. "The city is in a better financial position than it was a few years ago," Brooks said in his argument that the city didn't need to increase taxes to reach the cash reserve goal. Brooks added that the city could expect to reap more taxes from retail stores that are scheduled to open in 2001. The 2000-2001 budget, tabbed at over $12.89 million, represents an increase of 11.8 percent over last year. A large amount of that hike is attributed to a plan for over $493,000 in raises for employees from the city's salary study. Another chunk of the budget increase was attributed to the addition of three new firefighters to cover shifts no longer covered by volunteers. Since council decided to roll back the millage, it effectively cancelled the public hearings that had been scheduled on the proposed property tax increase.
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