A plan to increase streetlight fees – including for some not presently paying a bill – returns to the Augusta Commission for a vote Tuesday.
Raising the fee, setting millage rates and approving a final project list for special purpose, local option sales tax 9 are three big-ticket items going before the commission at its regular 2 p.m. meeting.
Ahead of that, the commission hosts a 1 p.m. public hearing to consider the revocation of the business license for three problematic apartment complexes: The Bon Air, Richmond Summit and Maxwell House. Residents and neighbors have complained of poor conditions and crime at the complexes.
At 11 a.m., the commission has a work session to continue review of proposed sales tax projects to fund using SPLOST 9, which goes before voters Nov. 4. Administrator Tameka Allen presented a slimmed-down $407 million set of projects to commissioners July 24.
All parcels billed for streetlights
A streetlight fee hike would come as the commission considers raising garbage fees that also appear on a homeowner’s tax bill.
Augusta’s streetlight program has run a deficit for years, with fees unable to cover the city’s costs to provide it. The commission used American Rescue Plan Act funds to briefly cover the gap but those funds ran out.
The proposed hike would increase the annual fee for most homeowners from $85 to $110, Interim Finance Director Tim Schroer told commissioners last week. The commercial rate would go from $107 to $185, while previously exempt properties will now be billed $110.
In addition, those who currently don’t pay a streetlight fee – about 15,000 households – will see a new base fee of $60, Schroer said.
Within the old city limits, where streetlights are currently covered by a portion of property taxes, homeowners will now be billed a $60 fee, with approximately $50 taken from the value-based portion of their tax bill, what Schroer said was a one-mill decrease in the urban services district millage.
The increases will generate approximately $8.6 million and create a $700,000 surplus, he said.
Homeowners who haven’t been paying are likely to balk, but Schroer said streetlights actually benefit all.
“Even if you don’t have a streetlight on your street, if you drive at night, you’re benefitting from those streetlights,” he said.
The millage decrease in the old city limits will also have the peculiar effect of lowering the tax bills of owners with higher-valued properties, Commissioner Brandon Garrett noted.
