Loganville set to vote on budget Thursday

Council looks at increasing fund to $18.9 million

The Loganville City Council is gearing up for a vote on a proposed $18.9 million general fund budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The $18.9 million spending plan represents an increase of $1.7 million, or nearly 10%, over the $17.2 million general fund budget for the current fiscal year.

In a letter to the city council leading off a more than 300 page look at the proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes much more than just general fund proposals, Loganville City Manager Danny Roberts indicated he hoped to maintain the current property tax millage rate, but he also pointed out that it is unclear what recent state legislation on property tax exemptions might do to the city’s fiscal picture.

“We don’t know what it’s (the property tax exemptions) going to do to the budget,” Roberts told the city council and a small audience of citizens during a recent public hearing on the spending plan. “But,” Roberts continued, “this budget was done with the thought that there’s not going to be a lot of value added (to city revenues from property taxes), so we kind of kept it pretty moderate for the property taxes.”

Currently, the property tax millage rate for property on the Walton County side of Loganville is 9.780 mills, while the millage rate for property on the Gwinnett County side of the city is 7.702 mills. One mill of property tax is equal to $1 for every $1,000 in the assessed value of a piece of property.

The millage rate is a fractional multiplier applied to the assessed value of a piece of property, which is 40% of its fair market value, as determined by the tax assessors in each of the counties in which Loganville is located.

As a couple of quick examples, the tax bill for a $350,000 home on the Walton County side of Loganville at the current millage rate would be $1,369.20, while the tax bill for a $350,000 home on the Gwinnett County side of Loganville would be $1,078.28at that county’s current millage rate. But for the upcoming fiscal year, as Roberts noted, the property tax exemptions now in state law could drop those totals.

Nonetheless, the budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1 currently includes a 2.5% cost of living adjustment for municipal employees, to be implemented in the middle of the fiscal year.

The budget also includes plans to hire eight new employees – four police officers, one code enforcement officer and three fire fighter/emergency medical technicians — although not all of them will be brought on board immediately, so as not to have a full-year impact on the city budget.

Under the current plan, the four police officers and the code enforcement officer would be added to the city payroll in November, with the firefighters scheduled to be brought on board with the city sometime in January.

In addition to property taxes and other levies, which are projected to cover $15.8 million of the $18.9 million in proposed general fund expenditures, with property taxes accounting for nearly $8.5 million of general fund revenue, there are other revenue streams that will support that fund.

Among those other revenue streams are various license and permit revenues, proceeds from fines and forfeitures, funding from other government sources, investment income and even some private donations and contributions While the general fund is a focal point of the proposed budget, it is not the only fund comprising the city’s spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

While the general fund is a focal point of the proposed budget, it is not the only fund comprising the city’s spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Overall, the city’s budget for maintenance and operations in the upcoming fiscal year to- tals $61,108,504, an increase of slightly more than 4% over the current fiscal year’s budget.

Among the funding sources for the overall budget beyond the general fund are ongoing revenues from voter-approved special-purpose local option sales taxes, which for the upcoming fiscal year are projected to make $25 million available to the city.

The city’s water and sewer fund is slated to provide nearly $13 million in municipal funding, with its solid waste fund slated to provide more than $3 million to the budget for the 2027 fiscal year. Rates charged to customers for those municipal services will be increasing with the new fiscal year.

On a department-by-department basis, the proposed budget outlay for the city’s legislative activities – that is, the mayor and council – is slated to increase from the current fiscal year’s $91,467.84 outlay to $229,749 for the 2027 fiscal year. The bulk of that increase, $137,000, is earmarked to cover legal expenses for legal action that is not yet subject to disclosure under state open meetings and open records laws.

Other notable department budget items for the upcoming fiscal year include a nearly 13% hike for the police department, from slightly more than $4.3 million in this year’s budget to $4.9 million proposed for the 2027 fiscal year.

The proposed 2027 fiscal year budget also lists numerous capital projects the city is planning to pursue over the next few years, with some activity beginning this year.

Capital projects are defined in the budget document for the 2027 fiscal year as “major, nonrecurring capital expenditure(s) involving the construction, expansion, purchase, or major repair or replacement of buildings, utility systems, streets, or other physical structures or property.”

Also under the city’s definition, capital projects “generally have an expected useful life of more than five years and a total cost exceeding $100,000.” Capital projects are proposed for consideration by the city’s finance team by the city government’s department heads.

Among the items included in the proposed capital improvement plan specifically for the 2027 fiscal year are police vehicles purchases totaling $391,600; construction of a sewage pumping station in the downtown area at a cost of slightly more than $1 million; an outlay of nearly $70,000 for computer software and computer equipment for maintaining the city’s fleet of vehicles, and $180,000 for the purchase of two 4-by-4 pickup trucks for the city’s sewer collection enterprise.

Multiple-year initiatives under the proposed capital improvement plan include stormwater system improvements, water line replacements in the Tara subdivision, and an initial phase of camera replacements at county facilities.