Would Augusta taxpayers support a 1.5-mill tax hike for law enforcement?
As Augusta leaders continued searching for ways to plug next year’s $21 million budget deficit, Administrator Tameka Allen floated an idea Thursday she said aligns with public sentiment: a property tax increase dedicated solely to law enforcement.
“Giving the citizens what they want,” Allen said at the budget workshop, pointing to a recent budget survey in which residents ranked law enforcement their No. 1 priority.
A 1.5 mill increase would generate about $12 million, more than enough to cover the projected $9.4 million law enforcement deficit. It would push the countywide millage rate to 7.78 mills. The school system rate, by comparison, is 18.74 mills.
Tax bills and the deficit
Allen said many homeowners incorrectly blame the city for rising tax bills. The commission has adopted the rollback rate or kept taxes flat every year since 2014, she said.
That restraint is one reason the city, now facing rising jail and personnel costs and the end of pandemic relief funding, is staring at a $21 million budget gap.
No commissioner embraced the tax proposal Thursday, but they are likely to revisit it. The commission set a deadline of this Tuesday for approving the 2026 budget although none expect to make it.
So far, they have approved only a handful of reductions and showed little appetite Thursday for deeper cuts to nonprofits or public transit.
Crime trends and sheriff’s budget
Sheriff Gino Brantley told commissioners that taxpayers would be getting a strong return on investment.
Since he took office this year, Part 1 crimes are down 32% and murders are down by 10, he said. Richmond County has had 79 fewer aggravated assaults involving guns. Traffic fatalities dropped to 22 this year over 37 last year, aided by a HEAT grant, he said.
While not a permanent fix, the sheriff’s office is close to securing a COPS grant of $2.3 million for three years, Brantley said.
He also outlined other changes the office is making, including replacing a $672,000 jail maintenance contract with four in-house technicians. Deputies will soon take over all security at the Augusta Judicial Center, shifting roughly $634,000 and 16 full- and part-time positions from the Richmond County Marshal’s Office to the sheriff.
Jail expenses are expected to keep rising. The Charles B. Webster Detention Center is averaging 1,350 inmates per day compared to 1,050 last year.
“We do not anticipate this decreasing, as we continue removing violent offenders from our community, including many individuals who committed aggravated assaults with firearms and murders prior to 2025,” Brantley said.
Environmental Services Fee plan
Commissioners did reach raised-hand consensus on three adjustments Thursday.
They agreed to use $1.47 million from the renamed Environmental Services Fee — formerly the garbage fee — to cover unfunded services. Rather than refunding the surplus to ratepayers, the money will support 65-75 building demolitions annually, 30-50 weekly vacant-lot cuts and part of mosquito control.
Cuts to Housing and Community Development
Commissioners also supported cutting about $470,000 from Housing and Community Development. The department primarily administers federal housing grants but cost the city millions this year in lost funds and late fees after a rental assistance grant was misspent. An audit is ongoing.
“This one department has cost us millions of dollars towards us not utilizing the funds that we did have towards the services they were intended to be for,” Commissioner Don Clark said.
HCD also manages roughly 64 rental homes purchased with federal program income and collects about $33,667 in monthly rent. Some commissioners want the city out of the rental business. Properties can be sold only after HUD-required affordability periods end, which for most is 2035 at the earliest, according to a handout.
Allen said the proposed cut applies only to the 2026 budget, not the deeper “rightsizing” of the department that will eventually be needed.
Correctional Institution positions
Commissioners also backed eliminating seven positions, five of them vacant, at the Richmond County Correctional Institution. The state-inmate work camp winds up costing Augusta some $2.2 million more annually to operate than the state reimburses.
