The ongoing effort to revise Augusta’s charter heads for another vote Tuesday on whether to seek voter approval through a referendum.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson, who has previously called for a referendum, put the request on Tuesday’s Augusta Commission meeting agenda.
The commission approved creating a committee earlier this month to propose and formulate changes for the Consolidation Act, which consolidated Augusta and Richmond County, but not to seek a referendum on the changes.
The document has never been substantially revised since voters approved it in 1995.
Members on the committee, expected to be named by commissioners, have not been announced. But so far as approved by the commission, none can be current or former elected officials or have served on any local board.
Johnson said like the original consolidation act, a revised charter needs similar voter approval.
After the Department of Justice rejected a 1980s-era effort to consolidate, city leaders in the 1990s knew voter approval would be needed, he said.
“I can’t see why we are having the same conversations that we had in the 1980s and 1990s, that set the city up for the next decade or more, and not allowing the citizens to vote on it as they did to establish the bill in the first place,” Johnson said.
Augusta has its share of referenda – last year’s vote to give Mayor Garnett Johnson a commission vote, the vote to add a half-cent sales tax for the James Brown Arena and the vote to approve multiple sales taxes for roads and other capital spending are just a few, he noted.
“The largest voice in the room should always be the people of Augusta and we should do everything in our might to reserve their right to vote on issues that will impact them,” he said.
House Bill 581 returns for discussion
In addition to the charter item, the big-ticket decision regarding House Bill 581 also returns to commissioners for a potential decision Tuesday.
The bill creates an automatic “floating homestead exemption” that limits tax hikes for homeowners based on reassessments of their properties, unless a local government opts out.
Most area jurisdictions including school districts have announced plans to discuss opting out and must finalize a decision by March 1.
The decision has attracted strong feelings on both sides, from homeowners seeking a tax break to commercial property owners who don’t want any burden of new taxes shifted to them.
In other action Tuesday, the commission is scheduled to hear four nurses speak on behalf of veterans and nurses who care for veterans.
The speakers, including Irma Westmoreland, Patricia Fielding, Tamika Kendrick and Lola Cosby, are signed up to speak on topics such as “needs of veterans,” “spinal cord injury veteran care,” what the commission is doing to support veteran health care and nurses who care for veterans.
