City eyeing millage rate and utility fee increases for FY2025

Following last week’s annual meeting of the Toccoa City Commission to discuss budget requests and details with city department heads, commissioners and staff are drafting a FY2025 city budget that will be presented to citizens during a series of public hearings in ??? before final adoption of the budget at the end of June, prior to the start of the Fiscal Year on July 1.

Preliminary numbers pin the FY2025 budget at $53.8 million, up 15.4 percent from the current year’s budget.

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 then-city manager Billy Morse, the increase was “due to increases in water and wastewater fund or wastewater projects and also grant funds for various projects of certain size.”

Included in the proposed budget for FY2025 are several changes that, if adopted, will impact residents’ pocketbooks. 

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. 

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.

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