The City of Baldwin met tonight to discuss the upcoming fiscal year’s millage rate, where the council voted 4-1 to entertain a rollback.
After more than four years of rolling back the millage rate and the city being strapped for cash, the council seemed to reluctantly agree that the millage rate needed to remain unchanged at 7.504 mils during their Aug. 12 work session. But at their Monday work session, the council’s vote changed dramatically.
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The council voted 4-1 with Councilwoman Stephanie Almagno in opposition to roll back the millage rate to 6.793 mils. The council discussed their need for funds, citing the “deplorable” condition of the building the city’s public works department is housed in, which has rats and lacks hot water.
The council also discussed the tax digest the city recently received, which shows property tax revenue exceeding what the city budgeted for. With the rollback rate the council voted for, the city has planned to balance the budget with $87,000 from the general fund. However, with the new information from the tax digest, the usage of general funds will likely be less than budgeted.
While some members of the council saw this as a reason to entertain the rollback, Councilwoman Almagno raised the issue that these funds that the city hadn’t budgeted for could be used to further improve the city, such as bringing in more public safety officials.
“Our job is also to protect the citizens and to protect our workers, so if this money would allow us to hire another police officer or another firefighter, is that better for the citizens?” Almagno said. “This is already a bare-bones budget. This budget is anorexic, we know that. We’ve cut and cut and still have to go into fund balance to make this budget work. This is not the budget any of us wanted.”
Even with these expenses and budget concerns, the rollback rate triumphed in the vote.
“I can’t even sit here and tell you that I’m justifying it [voting for the rollback], honestly,” Councilwoman Alice Venter told Now Habersham. “The citizens spoke, and I’m just really hopeful that we can dig in and find some other revenue sources to make up for that. There are some things that I think are going to help make up for some of the things that we’ve lost in the budget, but it was a really hard decision for me [to vote for the rollback].”
Venter says she hopes new homes, businesses and the possibility of packaged alcohol sales coming to Baldwin could offset some of the budget issues they may face with the rollback if it passes a second reading.
The council has asked that citizens attend the scheduled millage rate public hearings to weigh in on the millage rate. The city’s next public hearing will take place on Sept. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Baldwin Municipal Court
