GAINESVILLE – Gainesville City Manager Bryan Lackey presented the city council his proposed budget for the 2021 fiscal year Thursday morning, a $28.8-million budget that included a full rollback on the FY2020 millage rate.
And while that is good news for city property owners, Lackey would go on to explain that his budget reflected significant decreases in spending brought about in part by COVID-19 related decreases in revenue.
“I wish I was presenting a different budget,” Lackey told council members.
Lackey explained that the budgeting process actually starts early in the calendar year, but even before that process began he said that he has sensed for a couple of years that the strong economy would not continue forever. Accordingly, his focus on preparing the FY2021 budget was going to be one of fiscal restraint.
“The whole time (over) the last few years we have been preparing for (economic) downturn,” Lackey said.
As early as January, before the arrival of COVID-19, Lackey was telling his department heads that belt-tightening was needed in their budget requests. Then came the pandemic and Lackey said in mid-March he knew, “All that hard work we put into the budget wasn’t realistic.”
And after Governor Brian Kemp ordered schools to shut down the reality of making those budget changes really set in. “We knew the next day, the next week that we would be going in and changing our budget.”
A link to the proposed budget is available by clicking here, but the bottom line is that the FY2021 budget is roughly 9.8-percent, or $3,141,000, less than the $31.96-million FY2020 budget that ends June 30th.
In addition, Lackey said in a media release, “We are providing a full rollback of the millage rate, 0.072 mills (3.322 to 3.250), so there will be no tax increase. The general fund millage rate is proposed to be reduced from 0.771 mills to 0.735 mills.”
Lackey did explain that the property tax bills that will be sent out later this year by the city are based on property appraisals made by the Hall County Tax Assessor’s Office, and that the full rollback in the millage rate is based upon a composite of property valuations within the city.
That means, on average, there will be no increase in property taxes for city property owners with the new millage rate. “However,” Lackey advised, “if you saw a huge re-assessment (increase) on your tax (appraisal), well, you’re probably going to pay a little more.”
Conversely, property owners who saw no appraisal increase will pay less because the millage rate is being lowered.
Following the initial budget presentation, the public will have the opportunity to weigh in during a public hearing scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday, June 2, during the city council’s regular meeting.
The council is then scheduled to vote on the FY2021 budget two weeks later at its June 16th regular meeting, slated for 5:30 p.m.
