The City of Milledgeville is holding mandated public hearings in conjunction with a proposed tax increase, and an analysis of the General Fund budget, adopted earlier this year, shows much higher salaries make up a large portion of the property tax hike.
City Manager Hank Griffeth issued a press release two weeks ago announcing that the mayor and city council are proposing a two-mill tax increase of up to 12.12 mills. With the increase, Georgia law requires that three public hearings be held, and the last one is scheduled for Nov. 28. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., and the millage rate will be set that night, Griffeth said.
Milledgeville operates on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year cycle, and the budget for the current year was adopted in June.
The total General Fund budget for the current year is approximately $15.9 million, according to Griffeth. That is just over $1.5 million above what was budgeted for 2022-23.
Significant salary adjustments make up a large part of the increase, Griffeth said.
“We had an increase in the General Fund that totaled about a million and a half dollars,” he stated last week. “Of that million and a half, about $1.1 million of that was salaries and benefits associated with the increases in salaries.”
Most of that increase was for two departments, the city manager pointed out.
“The majority of that $1.1 million was the police department and fire department,” he said, adding that the increase for those two was approximately $780,000.
It was widely reported in numerous media accounts before the budget’s adoption for the fiscal year 2024 that the salaries for those two departments lagged behind most cities and counties of similar size. Further, as was made known then, the police department faced a severe shortage of officers and the potential loss of even more due to the low salaries. That led the city to look at its overall wage plan, Griffeth said.
“It was obvious what we needed to do across the board was update the pay scale, because it had not been done since 2012. Basically, the way we did that,” he explained, “we set the scale where nobody that worked for the City of Milledgeville made less than $15 per hour. And, we just carried it on from there through the scale.”
All employees received a pay hike, some more than others, but the minimum increase for an employee was $2,000, according to Griffeth, who noted that the city would continue to work on improving the salary scale.
Griffeth said the pay increases totaled $1,177,142, insurance for the city went up $93,200, and operating expenses for city departments increased $149,974.
The city manager said the numbers for the past fiscal year look positive.
“Our unaudited figures show we spent about $13.9 million last year, which is about $500,000 under what was budgeted.”
To help offset the total increase in expenditures, Griffeth during budget discussions proposed several other revenue sources, including an additional alcohol tax and a fee for “gaming machines,” primarily the ones found in convenience stores that are not regulated at this time. Griffeth said the potential alcohol revenue source is still in the talking stage.
“I think this will end up being a really good time to look at totally overhauling our alcohol ordinance. And,” he added, “when we do that, this gives us the opportunity to set those additional fees we talked about.”
The city manager said more progress has been made on the gaming machines.
“We have gotten that ordinance pretty much close to where we want it,” he stated. “We’re batting around what kind of machines will cost what fee.”
There is no revenue in this year’s budget for any fees under the proposed ordinance. Still, Griffeth is hopeful monies will be collected in the current year.
“I have estimated what I would like to put stickers on and what’s out there. I have estimated that would generate $90,000-$100,000,” he noted. “But, we don’t necessarily have to wait until July 1 to put in a new fee. They could be pro-rated, or we could make February the month they are due every year, something like that.”
Griffeth pointed out that tax rate increases are uncommon in Milledgeville.
“Our last millage rate increase was in 2018,” he said. “And, it had only gone up one mill for 10 years before that.” He added that the tax digest decreased about $8 million for property in the city this year, meaning a drop of about $88,000 in taxes at the same rate as before. He did acknowledge, however, that in 2022 a county reassessment of property did increase tax revenue, as no millage rate adjustment was made.