If its work session this past Monday night was any indication, the Commerce City Council will have a very short meeting next Monday, Aug. 9. The council meets at 6:30 at the Commerce Civic Center.
There are only two action items on the agenda.
One is the passage of the “final” version of the 2010-11 city budget.
Since the last time the council discussed the budget, the total revenue figure has grown by almost $3 million — none of which affects tax or utility rates.
Accounting manager James Wascher explained that he added the proposed $575,000 Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority loan/grant, $1.5 million in state money for the expansion of the library, $100,000 from a Department of Natural Resources grant, a $45,000 contingency fund and several SPLOST-funded line items for the water and sewer departments.
The council did not discuss further cuts to General Fund spending, and the “final” $27.4 million budget will require a .76-mill tax increase, based on current estimates of the city’s 2010 tax digest.
And that figure remains up in the air.
“We got preliminary information on the tax digest,” city manager Clarence Bryant told the council. “To get the amount of money in the budget will require a 2.26-mill tax rate.”
That’s one one-hundredth of a mill higher than previously estimated.
But, said Bryant, Jackson County must still hear 750 property assessment appeals that could affect the tax digest.
“If somebody wins their appeal, the digest (amount needed to fund the budget) is not there,” he warned.
Bryant indicated that the city will wait as long as it can to set its tax rate so it will have a better idea of the status of the tax digest.
As part of the process of increasing the tax rate, the city will also hold three public hearings.
The only other action item on the agenda as of Monday is a request for the city to buy back a single lot in Grey Hill Cemetery.
