Members of North Augusta City Council have started the process for the 2022 budget plan. Staff reviewed the plan during a Sept. 21 study session.
City Administrator Jim Clifford opened the meeting with a review of the priorities established after getting input from council members. One of the priorities is employee compensation and benefits.
MORE: Moving Forward with North Augusta’s New Public Safety Headquarters
“We’re in a very competitive labor market right now and we’re seeing labor rates rise across both the private sector and the public sector,” he said. “As I look at the city of Aiken, Aiken County, Columbia County and Augusta-Richmond County all of those municipalities and counties are raising their overall labor rates. In order for us to remain competitive with that I believe we’re going to have to do the same.”
Finance Director Cammie Hayes presented council with a proposed total budget of just under $48 million. The current budget is just over $44.6 million.
“The first few pieces that represent the operating budget, we’ll start with the general fund, and we have an increase of 8.44%,” she explained. “This increase is reflective of a COLA, some personnel changes and some increased expenditures.”
Clifford is requesting a 4% cost of living adjustment for all employees.
“Because we want to make sure we can retain the folks that we have across all of our departments,” he said. “Ultimately it’s a competitive marketplace for the folks that we’re dealing with. We have foregone a COLA for several years now but I believe we’re at a time now where that’s going to be advisable for our folks.”
Reassessments in Aiken and Edgefield Counties will have an impact on the North Augusta tax millage rate, which is currently 73.50 mills. Due to prior annexations some areas of North Augusta extend into Edgefield County.
[adrotate banner=”19″]
Clifford explained, “If we do a rollback based on our property tax assessments from Edgefield and Aiken County that would rollback to 70.2. What the staff and I are recommending is that we lock in our current millage rate at 73.5 understanding that that is a de facto increase of 3.3 mills. It’s a way we can capture some of the costs that we can capture this way.”
Hayes says keeping the millage rate at 73.50 mills will result in an annual tax increase of about $31.00 on a person with a $200,000 home and two vehicles totaling $40,000 in value.
The budget also includes funds for some quality-of-life and beautification projects.
MORE: Parking Concerns, Proposed Boat Dock for North Augusta’s Riverside Village
“One of the newer ones on here really is the downtown and Main Street initiatives. So we have some money set aside inside the budget for those,” said Clifford. “One of them is an LED retrofit project. The ornamental pole on Georgia and West Avenue and down into Riverside Village, those are city owned poles.”
Council set a tentative calendar for additional study sessions if needed as well as a public hearing on Oct. 18. The target is to approve the 2022 budget the first week of November.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
[adrotate banner=”15″]
