Heated Budget Debate Arises at Peachtree City Council Meeting

August 23, 2025

Caroline Pope

Government Headlines Local Peachtree City

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The members of the city council convened on Thursday night, August 21, with the 2026 fiscal year’s budget plan on the agenda. This budget plan is a sort of “forecast,” as Mayor Learnard put it, for how much money the council will need to spend in the upcoming year.

However, just as the council was about to vote on the budget, council member Clint Holland moved to change the reserve amount in the upcoming budget plan. The “reserve,” Mayor Learnard explained in an interview with The Citizen shortly after the meeting, is a “just in case” fund that the government keeps should the need arise- for example, in case of a natural disaster or some other unforeseen circumstance.

Holland’s motion was met with pushback from the mayor, who was alarmed that council members wished to make changes to the budget on the night it was to be approved. Supporters of the motion- including Clint Holland and fellow council member Suzanne Brown- felt that a change to the reserve amount would be a better use of taxpayer money- “that kind of stewardship is something I’m proud of,” Clint Holland stated in the meeting, adding that he believes some of the money should go back to taxpayers. Holland did not immediately respond to The Citizen’s request for comment.

Detractors felt that it was inappropriate to try to make changes to the reserve amount right before budget approval- calling it an “outrage,” a “stunt,” and an “insult to our staff” to ask to make changes so suddenly in a council meeting after appearing to agree with the budget in the many work sessions and public hearings involved in its creation. Mayor Learnard also raised concerns that the motion made did not include a specific number to which the reserve might be changed. After several minutes of contentious debate, the agenda item was tabled until the September 18^th meeting.

This controversy somewhat overshadowed the other events of the meeting, including public comments which raised concern over how pickleball noise at the new courts will affect quality of life in nearby neighborhoods and several variance requests regarding property laws. Citizens- and The Citizen- will have to wait until the September 18^th meeting to see how the budget debate ends, for only time will tell how this sudden turn of events will affect the council’s budget policy.

Caroline Pope

Caroline Pope is a lifelong resident of Fayette County. She is currently a college sophomore at Samford University with an English major and business minor.

4 responses to “Heated Budget Debate Arises at Peachtree City Council Meeting”

JDPower

August 30, 2025

Very few people would argue with a rollback putting more money in their pocket. But Hollands move just seems irresponsible, to put it nicely.

To propose a massive change in reserves at the very last minute where it hasn’t been discussed or analyzed in the numerous workshops is flat out irresponsible. I can’t understand why he would be proud of such a rash move.

But even if it had been debated and passed, what does he think happens next year?! The rollback would be pulled from the reserve, not a large budget cut. Next year’s millage would be similar to the pre-rollback one this year because it will need to pay for next year’s budget. There won’t be any more “surplus” reserves to pull from in 2026.

So Clint proposes a one year payout from the reserve fund, in a year he is up for reelection. Smells swampy.

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My.02

August 25, 2025

I support these questions about the size of PTC’s excessive reserves / “rainy day fund” in the budget. Good for members Holland and Brown.

Several of us have questioned the massive size of the reserve here in The Citizen’s comments, spurring Kenneth Hamner to attempt a defense on behalf of PTC. See “5 Myths About Peachtree City’s Budget”, 6/24/25.

In that article, Hamner’s “Myth #1: Peachtree City’s Large Reserves Are Hurting The City” was completely busted by commenters. While he replied to others, he has not responded to the questions and comments I posed.

See that article for specifics, but on a $60,000,000 2026 operating budget, 60% (or an extra 7+ months of expenses) in the reserve / “rainy day” fund would be $36,000,000 of our money sitting idle in the bank. Seems to me at least half of that should be back in our accounts.

In his article in support of the excessive reserves, Hamner left out that the Government Finance Officers’ Association (GFOA) expressly cautions against holding 50% (6 months) or more in reserve as “excessive”. (See Civicfed.org “How Much Fund Balance is Too Much? Not Enough? Just Right?” 12/9/09)

He also neglected to note that PTC not long ago had a reserve policy of 4 months / 33% of its operating budget. What happened to that? For comparison, Fayetteville’s policy is to maintain 25% (3 months) of spending in reserve.

Hamner also cited our AAA bond rating, but there are other factors that are more important to our bond rating than a large reserve, such as a stable / growing tax base, consistency of tax collections and expenses, no reliance on one industry (eg huge paper mill) and so on.

He stated that a 60% reserve “protect(s) PTC” from disruptions like a two-month delay in property taxes or the financial impact of a tornado hitting part of the city. But that’s why the GFOC recommends at least 2 months’ spending in reserve, isn’t it? And I assume PTC also has insurance to cover natural disasters.

If 60% in the “rainy day” fund is good, why not 65% or 75%? What is the point at which Hamner or other big cushion advocates would say, “Whoa, that’s too much!”?

The problem here to me is not just that I would prefer to decide how to spend my own money vs it sitting in a city bank account, or that PTC has a recent history of a lax budget-setting process. Budgets are supposed to cause spending decision discipline, but being flush with cash opens the door to unbudgeted and less-than-priority expense decisions.

I also see that the City Manager is proposing to spend $60,000,000 next year. That’s $18.8 million or 45.6% more than 5 years ago when PTC’s Adopted Budget for FY2022 was $41.2 million, and 5.6% above last year. What’s happened here?

If this doesn’t spark the Mayor to lead some serious discussions of priorities and necessities in the city’s spending and the size of its reserve, why not?

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1. drdrakeramoray
  
  August 26, 2025
  
  Well, there’s that. The only fix is probably a change at the Mayor position. It to me is a real issue if the “budget” it going up way faster than the inflation rate. That is exactly what is going on, not that the Council seems to care.
  
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millennialneighbor

August 24, 2025

Last-minute changes, with no details outlining the means to accomplish the suggested changes. Not sure what there is to be proud of.

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