Peachtree City residents will see the city’s portion of their annual property tax bill increase, as a .25 mill hike was approved by the City Council at a 7 a.m. Monday meeting.

The quarter-mill increase will net an additional $442,000, but the city also gets a windfall of $417,000 from increased property reassessments, according to Finance Director Paul Salvatore.

The extra money will be used to add three police officers and three firefighters to the city’s ranks, Salvatore said. The city is also seeking a matching grant to add up to six additional firefighters, and council still has to decide whether or not to add a fourth police officer to the budget using cost savings from this year’s police budget.

If the city were to roll back the millage rate to avoid any tax increase, the budget would have to be cut by $1.27 million or the city would have to take that amount from its cash reserves, Salvatore said.

The tax increase will add $20 to the property tax bill for a home valued at $200,000 this year. Since the valuation of homes varies from year to year, that figure is not an accurate reflection of how much the millage rate will cost each individual property owner, however.

The millage rate includes a special millage equalling $35,000 that’s set aside to fund the Development Authority of Peachtree City.

Although the vote on the millage rate was unanimous, Councilman Steve Boone said he still would rather see the three police officers deleted from the budget, with that money going to reduce the city’s use of cash reserves this year, projected at roughly $414,000.

Boone told The Citizen that council could sock the money away and if the police department met the justification for needing more officers, council could fund it from those monies.

“I don’t have a problem with the police department,” Boone said.

Boone noted that all other city departments have been cut, and council has also cut capital projects from the city’s public improvement program.

To pare down the budget, council has postponed design and construction of the expansion of the Gathering Place senior citizen’s center, and raised by 25 percent the amount employees have to pay monthly for medical insurance.

An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect amount in the headline. The amount listed in the headline and in the story is now correct.