MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie City Council approved a $51 million budget Tuesday night that includes a significant tax cut.

Council proposed the budget with a millage rate of 9.935 at a meeting Sept. 5, but had to give final approval on Tuesday. Fiscal Year 2017 starts Oct. 1.

The millage rate is almost 3 mills less than FY2016’s rate, according to documents published by the City of Moultrie.

One mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of a property’s value. Taxes are calculated based on 40 percent of a property’s assessed value, so if you have a $100,000 house the taxes would be based on $40,000 and one mill would cost you $40.

The budget approved Tuesday is about $7 million less than last year’s, in large part because of the transfer of expenses. The city’s contributions to the Recreation Department and the Economic Development Authority ended as those two agencies gained the power to levy their own taxes, and the Emergency 911 Center, which the city and Colquitt County governments had shared expenses on, became fully funded by the county as of July 1.

In other action Tuesday, the council:

• Agreed to donate a portion of the former railroad right-of-way to the Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority. The city has used much of the right-of-way to form the Tom White Linear Park, also known as the bike trail or the walking trail, but the linear park doesn’t extend all the way to the airport. City Manager Pete Dillard said the donation will help the airport authority “square up” its property and officials hope it will contribute to economic development in that area.

• Heard complaints about a sewer smell in a ditch on 11th Court Northwest, a possible traffic hazard on 10th Avenue at Eighth Street Northwest, a downed stop sign on Second Avenue at 12th Street Northwest, discarded shoes hanging from utility lines, and piles of storm debris along numerous streets. Mayor Bill McIntosh assured those who came before the council that city staff would look into their complaints, but in the case of the storm debris he said it would take a while. Dillard estimated it would take the city six to eight weeks to completely clean up the mess left by Tropical Storm Irma, which swirled through the area Sept. 11.