Macon officials looking to eliminate street light fee

Every three months when the garbage bill arrives at Brandon Thompson's house, there's a separate street light fee he has to pay.

Thompson is among the 5,783 Macon households in what used to be unincorporated Bibb County that are paying the fee. Everybody else's street light costs are covered through the annual Macon-Bibb County budget.

This fiscal year, Macon-Bibb is expecting to bring in about $333,000 in street light fees, with about $280,000 of that being paid to utility companies.

After learning about Macon-Bibb officials setting the same property tax and garbage rates for residents, Thompson said he became curious if the same thing would be true for street lights. His latest quarterly street light fee was $10.29.

"The impression I get is they are trying to equalize the services, and I wanted to make sure they didn't forget about this additional one," he said.

Macon-Bibb spokesman Chris Floore said the administration and several commissioners are developing a timeline to eliminate the fee, which will happen after a lighting study -- approved by commissioners a month ago -- is complete.

Some residents in formerly unincorporated neighborhoods began paying the fee after requesting street lights in their communities before consolidation in January 2014. The amount of the fee fluctuates, depending on how many lights are in that area and how much power is consumed, Floore said.

"Those street lights will still need to be paid for, so the expense would come from our budget," he said in an email. "That difference, however, will change after a street lighting needs study determines the best method for the fee to be applied equally to all residents.

"We got rid of double (property) taxation. Now we have to get rid of this fee," he said.

Commissioner Mallory Jones said the county must make sure the street light costs are fair to everyone.

"As long as those roads are public roads, I don't think anyone needs to pay extra," he said. "We need to equalize it."

To contact writer Stanley Dunlap, call 744-4623 or find him on Twitter @stan_telegraph.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 7:49 PM with the headline "Macon officials looking to eliminate street light fee ."