(Editor’s note: Story has been updated for clarity to include the following sentence. While the political lingo may be confusing to some, a “rollback” is neither a tax cut, nor a tax hike, it is simply a roll back to the previous years rate with no adjustments.)
The Augusta Commission met in a special called meeting on Aug. 30 to finally approve the 2022 millage rate rollback and later, in committee, agreed to go ahead and begin the process to hire a new city administrator.
After weeks of hand-wringing, motions, substitute motions, compromise motions and deadlocked votes, the commission approved a rollback of the millage rate, which means the city will not be imposing a tax increase on property owners.
While the political lingo may be confusing to some, a “rollback” is neither a tax cut, nor a tax hike, it is simply a roll back to the previous years rate with no adjustments.
The millage rate will remain at 7.986, the same as the 2021 rate. However, even with the rollback, many homeowners will still pay a higher tax as many homes throughout the area were appraised at a much higher value than previous years.
MORE: Augusta Commission’s failure to pass millage rate has ripple effect
Unlike the previous three special called meetings that all ended in a deadlock vote, on Tuesday, the commission vote was 9 to 1, with only District 5 Commissioner Bobby Williams voting no.
However, Williams seemed to indicate that he may have punched the wrong voting button, but regardless, the measure passed.
The eleventh hour vote came to the relief of both the Finance Department as well as the The Richmond County School Board, both which were waiting for some kind of commission action before those respective agencies could act any further on collecting the tax.
By state law, proposed millage rates must be advertised for one week in the county legal organ. Should the commission have voted for the recommended tax increase, then three public hearings would have to be held before the deadline of Sept. 8, according to Finance Director Donna Williams.
Meanwhile, since property tax collected by the school board is bundled together with the city property tax, the school board was left rudderless until the commission took action.
The commission will meet in a final special session on Sept. 8 to put a final stamp of approval on the rate, but that is all the meeting will be, a rubber stamp. According to state law, once a rollback rate is advertised to the public, it cannot be raised at the last minute.
MORE: Richmond County’s Board of Education finalizes millage rate
District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight says she stuck to her guns against raising taxes and was delightfully surprised that she was able to help sway the body.
“I wasn’t wavering; I wasn’t going to cut deals; it was all or nothing for me. I think giving the taxpayers a break and reining in spending was the right thing to do,” McKnight said.
Commissioners on the Administrative Services Committee also agreed to slowly begin the process of selecting a replacement for former City Administrator Odie Donald, who abruptly resigned in January.
District 6 Commissioner Ben Hasan and District 10 Commissioner John Clarke have both advocated that the process not begin until January, when three new commissioners and the new mayor are sworn in.
However, District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom, while agreeing to allow the next commission to make any final hiring decisions, has pushed to get the process started now to give the commission time to define their search properly and give applicants plenty of time to apply.
Commissioners did decide to alter the language slightly requiring “like experience” rather than specific experience as a city administrator, which would mean that local department heads could apply.
MORE: Augusta Commission deadlocks on millage rate, stalling legal process
Interim City Administrator Takiyah Douse clearly has significant support in her first nine months of the job of running the city and District 4 Commissioner Al Mason cautioned that the committee shouldn’t say too much publicly on a process they agree will be decided by the next administration.
“I want to make sure we’re clear, so it is a fair process. This is not about any one individual, so when we start throwing names out, then it’s not fair to the process,” Mason said.
The full commission still must vote before the search officially begins.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
