Oakwood Mayor Lamar Scroggs said at a Monday night meeting, he hopes an increase in the tax rate will enable the city to pay down debt and build a reserve fund, and then council members can drop the rate in the future.
OAKWOOD - The Oakwood City Council voted unanimously for a tax increase of nearly 50-percent at a meeting Monday night.<br />
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The new millage rate - if given final approval next week - will be four mills, up from 2.658 mills.<br />
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The vote came after three public hearings on the proposed increase, and residents showed up at each one to question council members about reasons for the tax hike.<br />
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Councilman Sam Evans said before the vote Monday night that residents and businesses had enjoyed the benefits of a growing Oakwood without having to pay additional city taxes.<br />
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"For 15 years, we've stuck to same millage rate - that was through some good times and bad times - and some of the bad times we're still recovering from," said Evans.<br />
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Councilman Montie Robinson also noted that city leaders had refused to increase the millage rate for many years, relying on growing industry in the area funding city coffers. Robinson said the economic downturn of 2008 began to put financial pressure on the city.<br />
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Mayor Lamar Scroggs said he understood there were concerns about not raising the millage rate in the last few years, but he said the timing wasn't right.<br />
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"A lady asked us the other night why we didn't start raising it [the tax rate] by increments three years back - or four," said Scroggs. "Well, we were in the middle of a recession. I absolutely could not see raising the millage rate."<br />
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At issue now is paying the debt on Thurman Tanner Parkway, a roadway that the city of Oakwood chose to build on its own. Also, the city's reserve fund was nearly depleted by a half-million dollar repair to a portion of McEver Road, which washed out in spring floods in 2013.<br />
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Scroggs told council members he was not pleased with raising the millage rate, but he said his hope was that the city could pay its debts, rebuild its reserve fund and then at some point in the future, vote to lower the millage rate to previous levels.<br />
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Monday night's vote came on the first reading of new tax ordinance. A final vote is scheduled for Monday, October 20 at 4 p.m. at Oakwood City Hall.<br />
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