x
Breaking News
More () »

Bibb County commissioner asks county to consider loan following mayor's tax increase proposal

This comes after several deficits have left the county with just over $4M in their general fund.

One Bibb Commissioner is asking the county to consider taking out a loan rather than raising property taxes. This comes after Mayor Robert Reichert proposed to raise property taxes 3.7 mills to prevent a projected $10 million deficit in next year's budget.

When it comes to raising property taxes, Commissioner Elaine Lucas says her vote is no.

“We need some breathing room. We do not need to raise taxes on our taxpayers who just had an increase last year,” says Lucas.

Lucas’ idea if for the county to get a tax anticipation note.

“You identify the amount of money in the millions ,you need to borrow to supplement your budget until you can get everything kind of flowing like it should,” says Lucas.

Then Lucas says they would have until the end of the year to pay it back, which is the same time property tax revenues come in. That is why Warner Robins City Attorney Jim Elliott says it is not uncommon to see governments do this.

“A lot of small communities that are very reliant upon ad valorem tax revenues to operate,” says Elliott.

Lucas says once they pay the loan off, it would be when the general assembly begins, so she says they could go to local legislators and ask them approve a new sales tax called an OLOST.

“Which would also assist local government our local government in getting over this financial crisis,” says Lucas.

By then, Lucas says she hopes legislators and voters would see that they are doing everything they can to fix their financial problems.

“Once we show them that, they’re convinced that we're doing right by them, that we're not dumping all the tax burden on them, I think they’ll work with us,” says Lucas.

As far as the county’s credit score going down recently, Lucas says when you are dealing with millions of dollars they typically give you a lower interest rate.

Ideas like this will be what the commissioners discuss over the next few weeks before they approve a budget before June 30th.

Before You Leave, Check This Out