CALLAWAY — With projected property values from the Bay County Property Appraiser, the City Commission will have to raise the ad valorem tax to 2.77 mills to keep the same amount of revenue the city received the previous year.
“There’s no fuzzy math,” Mayor Tom Abbott said. “We have a shortfall.”
It was interim City Manager Michael Fuller’s first stab at a city budget and the critique from commissioners was harsh. Fuller had asked for a millage increase of 100 percent, from 2.25 to 4.5 mills. One mill equates to $1 of tax for every $1,000 of value.
“This is Santa Claus’ list,” Commissioner Melba Covey said. “But the parents are going to have to buy it.”
Fuller based this budget proposal on all of the needs of the city, including:
-A 5 percent raise for all employees
-Replacement of 7,000 water meters
-Capital improvements to IT, public works and leisure service equipment.
What Abbott and the other commissioners want before the next budget meeting at 4 p.m. July 14 is a budget message explaining expenditure increases from the previous year, a prioritized list of certain expenses and a list of one time expenses for which the city might be able to use reserves. Commissioners Bob Pelletier and Covey also suggested a five-year plan for the city.
“He’s not making anything up. He developed this based on needs,” Abbott said. “We have to figure out which are we going to have to do to keep levels of service.”
Pelletier and Covey are both vocal proponents of updating the software for the city’s utility billing to allow for electronic payment. However, Covey was adamant about not raising taxes.
“There’s a lot of increases that do not make sense, padding after padding,” she said. “When I’m looking out for taxpayer dollars I don’t call it micromanaging, I call it doing my job.”
To keep taxes the same, the commission would need to cut services.
“There are needs,” Abbott said. “The millage is going to go up.”