Roswell City Council Votes To Keep Millage Rate

The Roswell City Council voted 4-1 to approve the city's 2012 budget of $99,204,219 Monday night, but added an amendment to keep the current millage rate of 5.455 as is. The $500,000 in unexpected revenue will go toward road resurfacing.

Roswell Mayor Jere Wood had proposed to lower the millage rate to 5.345. It was a measure championed by Councilwoman Betty Price, who voted against the motion to keep the current millage rate. 

"I love a tax break as much as anybody," Councilwoman Nancy Diamond said. "Last year, I got a $600 reduction just in my home and I have to wonder how that will affect all of us across the board. If I'm getting that, it's got to be pretty dramatic all across our city."

Diamond voted to keep the millage rate as is because she feared the level of services provided by the city would suffer. "I believe the reason we've always had an overage is because we have put off some of the maintenance things over the last few years trying to get through this time and I think we have done a good job of that, but we have a lot of things that have really been pushed arguably beyond their limit," she said. "I think we are headed toward a change in service level. That is another discussion that I don't think we've come to yet."  

She went on to remind the council that people moving to Roswell didn't move here because the city had the lowest taxes, but because of the service that is different and better than the surrounding cities.           

Councilman Jerry Orlans also voted to keep the millage rate as it currently is. One of his concerns was getting the necessary funding for road resurfacing.

"The last several years, everyone has been saying that we shouldn't be taking road surfacing [out of] reserves. We should put it in our operating budget," he said. "We talked about that in some of our work sessions for this budget. All I'm trying to do is do what we talked about multiple times and that is get road resurfacing into our operational budget."        

Councilman Orlans also said that neighboring municipalities and counties are in the hole and are looking to raise millage rates. Roswell has not had to raise those rates due to a conservative budget approach. 

"I've been on council for 19 years.  We've done it quite well for those years," he said.  

However, Mayor Wood saw it differently and felt that the residents of Roswell needed a tax break. 

"I will tell the council that in the 13 years that I've been Mayor, we've never seen less than a $2 million surplus for the previous year and I'm suggesting that we fund our road resurfacing from what I would expect would be somewhere between $2 and $4 Million surplus this year," he said . "I believe that in the economic situation, when times are tough and people are tightening their belts, that the city should take the same approach, so I would hope that this motion would not pass."  

The budget and added amendment passed 4-1, with Councilmembers Orlans, Kent Igleheart, Diamond, Becky Wynn voting for and Price voting against. Councilmember Dippolito was absent with an excuse. 

The final reading of the budget is set to take place Wednesday, June 1.

Other Agenda Items     

-In other news, Tim Geiken and Brian Shelper were given special recognition by the council for their participation in Roswell's "Day of Hope" event, which took place back on April 17.          

-The Council also voted unanimously to approve the settlement agreement and payment to the Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority and Grady Hospital for inmate medical services from 2006 to 2010 in the amount of $142,506.47.

Dan Roach, Director of Human Resources for the city of Roswell, told the council that he at first thought that payment for the medical treatment of inmates held in the Roswell Detention Center was the responsibility of the Fulton-Dekalb Hospital Authority if they had a pre-existing medical condition prior to their incarcerations. However, Roach said he was made aware that the city still has the responsibility to pay the medical bills of  its inmates. 

Councilman Jerry Orleans at first disagreed with the motion. 

"If Grady takes responsibility for indigent care for Fulton and Dekalb residents, and if the people in the city jail are Fulton and Dekalb residents, why should we pay for those services when our tax dollars are already paying for those services," Orlans said. 

In spite of  his misgivings about the motion, Orlans reluctantly voted for the approval and it passed unanimously.   

-And finally, the council voted unanimously for the approval to sign a contract with Southern Wood Systems to manufacture a roof system over the Riverside Park stage in the amount of $59,022.