The Augusta Commission takes up streetlight fees, property taxes, garbage fees and special purpose, local option sales tax 9 at a high-stakes called meeting Tuesday.
The called meeting starts at 10 a.m. with streetlight fees, which many Augusta property owners have never paid. Under the latest proposal suggested by Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilfoyle last week, the annual residential fee would increase from $85 to $95.
The rates for commercial and tax-exempt properties would more than double to $295. In addition, some 15,000 homeowners who have never paid a stormwater fee would see a new $45 fee on tax bills that go out this fall.
The need for an increase stems from the fact that current fee collections have failed for a number of years to cover the city’s overall cost to light up the roads.
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On the millage rate, city staff members last week reported facing a nearly $11 million deficit the city will have to cover for Fiscal Year 2026 either by raising taxes, increasing employee contributions or other revenues or by dipping into reserves, which are currently limited due to expenses incurred during Hurricane Helene.
The proposed rates are not attached to the Tuesday meeting agenda but reflect a tax digest with a net increase of about $300 million, according to an earlier presentation.
Absent a decision to raise the rate, the proposed new countywide rate in the presentation was 6.277 mills. The rate is applied against each $1,000 of a home’s 40% assessed value. The new rate would raise $52.8 million but generate only $392,100 in new revenue.
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Garbage fees up for discussion Tuesday represent another likely new increase to homeowners’ incoming tax bills. Last month, citing the city’s failure to adjust garbage pickup rates for a dozen years, Administrator Tameka Allen suggested raising them by either 17% or 23%.
The smaller increase would cost taxpayers $374.50 annually, up from the current rate of $320.50, but funds no supplemental services the city has previously paid using the fee, such as cutting vacant lots and demolishing blighted properties.
Whatever it turns out to be, the new rate excludes recycling collection, which homeowners now have to negotiate separately with hauler Coastal Waste and Recycling.
On SPLOST 9, expected to go before voters in November, the commission has a maintained focus on public safety infrastructure, such as a new jail pod for $65 million, and economic development, such as a $25 million expansion of sewer lines through south Richmond County to a new industrial park on the Burke County line.
The commission is expected to make decisions on all four items Tuesday to make deadlines for including the fees on fall tax bills and finalizing the project list associated with the Nov. 4 referendum on SPLOST 9.
