City Commissioners to adopt FY2025 Budget Monday

The Toccoa City Commission will meet at 5 p.m. next Monday, June 10, for a regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting will take place at City Hall, 92 N. Alexander Street. 

In a short agenda for Monday’s meeting, commissioners will consider an appointment to the Historic Preservation Commission and hear the monthly finance report from Finance Director Becky Bohannon.

The only other item on Monday’s agenda is the second reading and public hearing on the proposed FY2025 city budget. City Commissioners are expected to vote on the approval of the FY2025 budget following the public hearing. 

As previously reported by WNEG News, the total of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2025 Budget for all Funds is $53,956,965, and includes a rate increase for property tax of 0.8 mills, sewer rate increases of $2.00 per base, solid waste service increases of $2 per rollout or 10% on commercial accounts, and Natural Gas increases that would bump the residential base rate from $11 to $20, the commercial/industrial base rate from $22 to $50, and the interruptible service base rate from $201 to $300, plus a proposed incremental increase of $0.03 per CCF. The proposed budget also includes an increase in sewer and water tap fees, doubling the cost of a typical residential water line from $750 to $1,500. Larger line tap fees would also double, and sewer tap fees for typical residential lines would jump from $1,000 to $2,000. Continued rising costs associated with water and wastewater service, including increases in costs of chemicals, required upgrades to the delivery systems, and the cost of maintenance on aging equipment all contribute to the need for the increases, according to city officials.

Currently, the city’s millage rate is 5.2 mills; the proposed budget would increase that by just over 13 percent, to 6.0 mills.  

WNEG News spoke with city manager Fredda Wheeler about the budget numbers. 

Wheeler said the millage rate bump would be minimal, and discussed the proposed utility rate increases. 

The Fiscal Year 2024 Operating Budget, which went into effect on July 1, 2023, is $46,644,945, which was an increase of 13.1 percent over the previous fiscal year. 

According to the draft of the resolution that would be approved when commissioners approve the budget, the $53,956,965 FY 2025 proposed budget includes specific fund budgets of $12.4 million for the General Fund, $17.5 million for the Water/Wastewater Fund, $14.3 million for the Natural Gas Fund, $4.4 million for the Solid Waste Fund, and $494,449 for the Lake Toccoa Facilities Fund $46,085,392 Operating Fund Budget, with $2.9 million in the Reserve Funds budget, and $4,929,730 in the Special Funds budget, for a total Proposed FY2025 budget for all funds of $53,956,965.  

Members of the public are invited to attend the meeting, and are welcome to address commissioners during the Public Comment section of the meeting.  Contact information for commissioners is available attached to this story on wnegradio.com.

 

	Gail Fry	Mayor	706.599.0205	[email protected]
	Terry Carter	Vice-Mayor	706.491.2550	[email protected]
	Evan Hellenga	Commissioner	706.491.0527	[email protected]
	Michelle Jamieson	Commissioner	706.491.7418	[email protected]
	Ron Matheson	Commissioner	706.244.0498	[email protected]