What had been a proposed FY 2015 budget with a quarter-mill property tax increase and a half-mill increase for capital improvements turned out to be no increase at all. Despite a lack of direction to city staff on July 10, the Fayetteville City Council on July 17 voted unanimously to adopt a budget that provides employee raises and adds seven new staff positions but does not raise the millage rate.
After providing no direction to city finance staff on July 10, where two councilmen agreed with the small proposed tax increase while two others did not, staff re-worked the budget with a decrease in the property millage rate from 3.115 mills to 2.676 mills and an increase in the Capital Improvements Program millage rate from .811 mills to 1.25 mills. With an adjustment of 0.439 mills in each portion of the budget, the two essentially offset each other and will result in no millage increase to Fayetteville property owners.
The vote to adopt the $10.3 million general fund budget was unanimous, with council members thanking city finance staff for their work. Perhaps as relevant as any of the comments were those of Councilman Ed Johnson.
“The direction we gave them was clear as mud,” Johnson said of the July 10 work session where council could not agree on a budget compromise and finance staff were left to chart a way forward after receiving prior direction from the council which meant that the millage increase would be in the offing.
As approved, the new budget gives city employees a 3 percent raise, instead of the original 2.4 percent increase, and adds seven new positions rather than the 11 originally proposed. The budget takes the part-time city manager to full-time once Joe Morton leaves later this year and includes the hire of two police officers, three firefighters, a building inspector and a maintenance staff.
The budget also includes a stormwater increase which will average $1.42 per property parcel, a 2.4 percent water and sewer increase and a 45-cent increase in trash collection fees.
Also approved was a $4.1 million Ga. Environmental Finance Authority loan to address numerous culvert and roadway rehabilitation projects and the dredging of Pye Lake.
The adopted budget also eliminates a combined $25,000 in contributions for the Fayette County Library and Fayette Senior Services.
The newly adopted CIP budget retains funding for some of the law enforcement vehicles and equipment, along with vehicle replacement for the fire and public works departments and money to resurface North Jeff Davis Drive.
The new budget includes a $3 million unassigned fund balance, a portion of which can be used for the Hood Avenue/Ga. Highway 92 traffic project now expected in 2016.
Fayetteville has not levied a tax increase on property owners in nearly a quarter-century.
The proposed FY 2015 budget showed $10.4 million in revenues, with $171,469 of that amount coming from a proposed .25-mill increase.
The overall assumptions for the budget included adding 11 new council-requested positions, such as four police officers and three firefighters, along with maintaining appropriate levels of both restricted and unassigned fund balances, increasing employees’ salary rates by 2.4 percent and funding the Ga. Highway 92/Hood Avenue project additional cost from the unassigned fund balance. The proposal also considered increasing the water and sewer rate by 2.4 percent to reflect the Consumer Price Index.
Also in play in the former proposal was a .5-mill increase in the CIP fund with a proposed budget totaling $1.698 million, of which $923,720 is generated from local taxes. Of that amount, $342,938 would come in the form of a .5-mill tax increase, the majority of which would be designated for law enforcement purposes.
