MOULTRIE, Ga. – The Moultrie City Council approved its lowest millage rate recorded in the last 20 years along with its 2022-23 budget during Tuesday night’s meeting.

The city’s general fund has a reduction in the property tax millage rate from last year’s rate of 8.120 mills to 8.100 mills.

The second public hearing for the 2022 proposed hearing was held Wednesday at noon.

City Manager Pete Dillard said during the hearing, “We still wanted to reduce our millage rate, so we did reduce it. Part of it we did [by] using some of our general fund reserves.”

The General Fund Reserve is similar to a savings account or rainy day money.

“We’re in very good shape there,” he added. “I’m very confident that another year of growth like we had will also take care of our increases which would kind of be like will level out some this year.”

“Although this is a slight decrease in actual millage rate the property tax revenues increase by $190,557 due to the increase in the Net Tax Digest, but a property owner will see a reduction on their tax bill if their property was not reassessed from the previous year,” according to budget documents presented during the work session.

The City of Moultrie’s 2022-23 budget was also approved during the work session.

Dillard said this year’s budget is reasonable and a “worst case budget” considering cost increases due to inflation.

A major percentage of the city’s budget is allocated to public safety including the police and fire departments.

Gary McDaniel, the City of Moultrie finance director, said federal funding such as the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and the American Recovery Act Program were exhausted to complete projects that couldn’t be done under normal operations.

The Solid Waste Fund rates were adjusted with a “slight increase” of $2 per month. That rate hasn’t been adjusted since 2009.

Similarly, the Electric Fund saw a “slight increase” in the base cost fee from $7.50 to $12.50 to help maintain the infrastructure, and the Water & Sewer Fund has an increase from .0049 cents per gallon to .0058 cents per gallon. The city charges residents and businesses per 1,000 gallons.

Dillard and McDaniel said in an interview Thursday that the Electric Fund has not increased since 1996.

McDaniel said all department heads worked collaboratively to minimize any utility increases.

The budget also includes a 3% evaluation salary increase. Employees’ increase percentage will be based on their evaluation.

“If somebody’s evaluating there’s an issue, there’s always a plan for how they can improve and they’re offered suggestions on what they can do,” Dillard explained in an interview Thursday.

The council approved the 8.100 millage rate and the presented budget with a unanimous vote of 6-0. All council members were present at the meeting.

Other actions taken

The council unanimously approved the consent agenda that included a supplemental agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation at Spence Field Airport, a service agreement with Southern Environmental Grinding, and the Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Moultrie and the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer.

The council also approved a $56,731 bid for communication equipment from McLaggan Communications & Radar from Hahira, Ga funded by the American Recovery Act Program and a $35,831.24 bid for service center surveillance cameras from BTV Systems from Macon funded by the Public works Internal Service fund.

The next city council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m.