Council to put extra tax money into police dept.
Fayetteville officials decided Thursday night that beefing up its police department was a better use of tax money than rolling back the millage rate and giving the citizens a small tax break.
The increase in property assessments is approximately $175,000 and City Manager Ray Gibson is using the funds for the police department. Gibson said the city will look at current needs of the department and assess where the funds need to be spent.
The other major change in the budget approved Thursday night was an increase of $2 million over the figures discussed in June. Gibson said the city will get the money from its unassigned fund balance, which currently totals just over $4.3 million.
The general budget now stands at just over $13 million and includes $1 million for the Hood Avenue SPLOST project, $250,000 for a financial software package, $37,000 toward the resurfacing of North Jeff Davis, $364,000 to fund lease purchases in the capital project fund and $350,000 to reduce the unfunded liability on the city’s pension plan. The city’s new budget starts Aug.1, and the millage rate will be set when the tax digest is set. The rate is currently 3.84.
In other action, the City Council approved the annexation plans for Pinewood Forrest. One of the issue outlined in the development agreement is a re-examination of traffic issues after 20 percent of the development is complete. If more traffic mitigation measures are necessary, the developers would have to add them to the next phase of the development.
Developer Rick Halbert agreed to the condition and said his development team is being very careful to make sure only the highest quality development is built.
“We’ve interviewed 14 homebuilders and 10 hoteliers so far,” he said.
