Speakers urge Brookhaven City Council to take millage cap rate increase ‘to the people’

Former Brookhaven Mayor J Max Davis urges the city council to let voters decide on a millage rate cap increase Screenshot Speakers including a former mayor of Brookhaven implored the city council to reconsider a proposal to remove the millage rate cap from its charter and instead let the voters decide the fate of a tax increase The remarks came during inhabitants comment at the Nov Brookhaven City Council meeting before and during a masses hearing about the city s budget Brookhaven City Manager Christian Sigman had presented the administration s proposed million operating and capital budget at the council s Oct meeting It includes a proposal to increase the millage rate to which would represent a hike of mills from the current rate of mills and require removing the millage rate cap from the city charter The estimated annual impact of the proposed millage rate increase would be for the average homesteaded residential property with a value of according to Sigman According to city attorney Jeremy Berry the ability to remove the parameters stems from a unofficial opinion by then-Attorney General Michael Bowers that says this could be done by home rule J Max Davis who served as Brookhaven s first mayor from to declared the council shouldn t decide on eliminating the millage cap without community input Let them vote like the charter commented Davis noted Don t take this power away from the people Let them decide There was a reason that the millage cap was in there so that we would reliably ensure that it doesn t go up beyond a certain level Davis also disputed the opinion that Berry cited saying that an unofficial opinion is not what should be guiding this council Davis commented he talked to current Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr last week about the opinion and that there may be a ruling on the issue at particular point down the road I think someone is giving you bad advice and I think this is bad form for the City of Brookhaven Davis declared If this happens without the consent of the people there will be litigation on it Brookhaven resident Eric Hovdesven along with other speakers explained city representatives need to tighten the reins on their spending rather than increasing the budget I feel there has been too much money spent on City Centre and projects that don t seem to go anywhere Hovdesven announced Resident Edwin Sims noted while he is generally pleased with the services the city provides he begged the council to not take away our ability to have referendums on tax increases According to a staff memo major expenses driving the need for increased revenues include funding of to meet the contractual obligations of the city s agreement with the Chattahoochee River Authority ChatComm full-year funding for staffing the Brookhaven Police Department s real time crime center to replenish the city s fund balance reserves for employee healthcare insurance increases for parks and City Centre maintenance Major capital improvement projects include the Windsor ADR roundabout construction procurement detailed design and engineering for the I- pedestrian bridge connecting Executive Park and the Peachtree Creek Greenway new street paving totaling miles continued funding of the city s sidewalk infill projects and continued funding of the city s sign replacement scheme As the proposed budget and related ordinance change were being heard for the first time no vote was taken on the measure The post Speakers urge Brookhaven City Council to take millage cap rate increase to the people appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta