Macon-Bibb budget vote looming with a new property tax increase

A vote on a Macon-Bibb County budget that proposes a tax increase for the second year in a row is scheduled for Tuesday.

Commissioners have spent four weeks combing through details, trying to shave off from the 3.75-mill increase proposed by Mayor Robert Reichert's administration.

But after some give and take on how much money outside agencies receive, pension contributions and other areas, a commission committee was able to reduce the potential hike by about 1-mill, or roughly $4 million.

The commission's Operations and Finance Committee met for several hours Friday, but by the end of the meeting there had not been much significant changes, said Commissioner Virgil Watkins, who chairs the committee.

"Today we met for three hours, and amazingly we ended up in the same place," Watkins said following the meeting. "We cut from different stuff and trimmed about $1.5 million then got to talking too much about pension (contributions) and ended up taking that back out at the end.

"It was a lot of good conversation, but we're still at about 2.87 mills," for a tax increase, Watkins said.

Commissioners have wavered back and forth on the breakdown of pension contributions, which could potentially save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars or more a year.

But the impact of a mandated 4 percent employee contribution isn't easy to determine, Watkins said.

Pension contributions, along with the proposed tax increase, brought at least a couple hundred people to a budget hearing Tuesday at the Government Center.

Residents and Macon-Bibb employees spoke out against the burden they said is being placed on property owners and employees because of the county's alleged financial mismanagement.

The public hearing came on the heels of discussions about doing a deep dive into the county's finances, which started when Commissioners Joe Allen and Elaine Lucas asked for a forensic audit.

Reichert said Friday that he hasn't been able to follow all the changes commissioners have made to the fiscal 2019 budget in recent weeks.

"It's a state of flux," Reichert said. Some commissioners "are stirring up a lot of anxiety and concern. This public hearing I think was a direct result of some statements made by some commissioners that just shake people's confidence about what's going on."

For the fourth consecutive year, the reserve fund had to be raided to cover expenses.

The budget has been cut to a point where Watkins said he believes any more major savings would only happen by reducing personnel.

"We aren't at the point, from what I can gather, where there seems to be the will to entertain laying off 50 people," he said.

This story was originally published June 1, 2018 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Macon-Bibb budget vote looming with a new property tax increase."