Cancel the

public hearings and any public outcry about a raise in property taxes

for Peachtree City residents.

It's not going

to happen.

Wednesday night,

the City Council voted to roll back its millage rate to avoid raising

property taxes. To cover the anticipated $275,000 shortfall the rollback

would create in the upcoming budget, council decided to dip into the city's

cash reserve account, dropping it to approximately $1.4 million.

Council voted

unanimously to roll back the millage to 3.84, which would raise the same

amount of property taxes as council received this year. The action came

the same night council was scheduled to hold a public hearing on increasing

property taxes through property reassessments by holding the millage rate.

City staff

had recommended holding the current millage of 4.06, which would effectively

raise an estimated $275,000 in taxes.

City Manager

Jim Basinger told council again Wednesday that the city didn't want to

take funds from the cash reserve since it was trying to build a three-month

supply of funds for emergencies.

A look into

the millage rollback was recommended by Councilman Robert Brooks at the

previous council meeting, and he pressed the issue again Wednesday night.

Brooks said the city could meet its goal of having three months' worth

cash reserve on hand in next year's budget.

"The city

is in a better financial position than it was a few years ago," Brooks

said in his argument that the city didn't need to increase taxes to reach

the cash reserve goal.

Brooks added

that the city could expect to reap more taxes from retail stores that

are scheduled to open in 2001.

The 2000-2001

budget, tabbed at over $12.89 million, represents an increase of 11.8

percent over last year. A large amount of that hike is attributed to a

plan for over $493,000 in raises for employees from the city's salary

study. Another chunk of the budget increase was attributed to the addition

of three new firefighters to cover shifts no longer covered by volunteers.

Since council

decided to roll back the millage, it effectively cancelled the public

hearings that had been scheduled on the proposed property tax increase.