Given the continuing economic doldrums, Peachtree City’s budget is likely to take another hit this year with dwindling property values resulting in less property tax revenue.
The detailed estimates will be revealed starting this Monday night as the city council convenes for its first budget workshop. The event is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m., and a second meeting if needed will be convened Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Both meetings will be held at City Hall.
As usual, the city manager will present his recommended budget to council. The big question will be whether any property tax increase — or any significant use of the city’s cash reserves — is recommended.
Although the meetings are slated as workshops, and no votes will be taken, council almost certainly will be making decisions that will shape the budget. Typically, however, very few members of the public attend the workshop meetings.
Last year, the City Council approved a 1.25 mill property tax increase, which was pitched as a cure to a projected $18 million shortfall over the coming five years. For a home with the average city value of $272,000, the millage increase resulted in a $108 a year increase in property taxes.
That tax increase brought the city an additional projected $2.28 million in revenue.
That large projected shortfall was due largely to two factors: the expiration of the transportation special sales tax, meaning the city will have to start funding road and path maintenance at $1.5 million a year and the anticipated loss of per-capita based local option sales tax revenues due to slowed population growth compared to other cities in the county and the unincorporated county itself.
Months prior to the last year’s tax increase, council cut $2 million from the budget.
The city budget has gotten so tight in recent years that the fire department recently decided to scrap its dive team because of the impending costs faced in equipping it so it can continue to function.
In recent years the city has also laid off more than a dozen public works employees and eliminated its building department in favor of an outsourced program that allows the city to “pay as it goes” and specifically make sure revenues from building permits can cover those expenditures.
City employees have gone without pay increases for the past several years, and it is unknown if any increase is planned into the budget that will be recommended by City Manager Jim Pennington.
