A standing-room-only crowd attended a Brookhaven City Council meeting on June 23 to let the panel know that it was unhappy with a proposal for a 40-percent increase in the city’s millage rate.
About 150 people attended the meeting in the council chambers, while another 100 watched the proceedings on a video feed on the first floor of City Centre.
After the public hearing, the council unanimously passed the millage rate increase during its regular meeting. All the council members, including Mayor John Park, said they struggled with the decision, but economic pressures forced the issue.
Council member John Funny said before the vote that the council had “worked diligently” to find cost-savings in order to spend the taxpayers’ money wisely. He emphasized that the extra income generated by the tax increase will maintain, not expand, services within the city.
The phrase, “Read the room,” was repeated multiple times during public comment as more than a dozen speakers asked the council to reduce or eliminate the millage rate increase.
Other people said the city should not reduce the Special Services Tax District millage rate from 12.000 to 6.45 for commercial properties that include Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University.
Ronnie Mayer, who introduced himself as the “unofficial mayor of Brookhaven,” said the council should “run this city like a business.”
“There’s so much money that we are wasting,” he said. “There are more than 35 employees that we don’t need. And the questions that the council has asked [City Manager Christian] Sigman seem very rehearsed.”
Sigman said during a presentation to the council that the city’s freeze on homesteaded residential properties has forced the city to raise the millage rate in order to provide the same level of services to its residents.
“Our assets need to be maintained,” Sigman said. “Personally, I wish I could keep the same budget that I had years ago, but it doesn’t happen.”
Council members asked Sigman about whether other cities, like Dunwoody, had similar amenities like public pools or parks. He declined to compare Brookhaven to other municipalities, although he said Brookhaven has more police officers per capita than Dunwoody.
Staff is recommending a millage rate of 3.850 mills, an increase of 1.233 mills, Sigman said. Property taxes comprise about 44% of the city’s revenues.
Last November, the council passed an ordinance to remove a cap on the city’s millage rate, despite pleas from residents to allow a decision to be made by referendum.
The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $800,000 will be about $394.56, and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $1,575,000 is approximately $764.46, according to an announcement from the city.
The increase will generate about $6.6 million, Sigman said, which will go towards 911 fees, building maintenance, health insurance, contracted services, park maintenance, and other expenditures.
“We tried to look at moving the needle by contracting services, but I didn’t get any feedback from the community that they wanted to cut services,” he said.
If the millage rate increase didn’t pass, Sigman said there would have to be immediate cuts to employee benefits, travel, and other incentive programs.
Last October, staff discussed increasing the millage rate to 3.54, which would represent a hike of 0.8 mills from the current rate of 2.74 mills. The latest proposal has increased the original rate by 1.233 mills.
Despite the proposed increase, city officials say that Brookhaven still has the second-lowest millage rate, behind Dunwoody.
