City Hall Notebook: Millage rate proposal meant to benefit police, fire and taxpayers
The City of Savannah coffers are healthy, future revenues are trending up and the city recently received a squeaky clean audit of its annual financial report, Savannah City Manager Jay Melder told City Council during its workshop on Thursday.
Those revenue increases will mean a lower millage rate for property owners and pay increases for the city's public safety workers, which the city hopes will help to circumvent inflation and a highly competitive job market.
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“We are in good fiscal health, and we have solid planning for the future. Our challenge is that the demand for our services is up and costs everywhere are rising, not only for our corporation, but everywhere in Savannah and everywhere across the country,” Melder said.
“There is fierce competition among employers in the job market. And that holds true for us as well. And there are uncertain economic times ahead.”
Later this month the city will consider adopting a proposed millage rate of 12.2 mills, the lowest in 35 years. The new rate is expected to reduce property taxes for the majority of the 19,000 Stephens-Day exemption qualified households in the city.
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The proposed rate is not a true tax cut, as it will generate more tax revenue than the current rate of 12.739 due to increases in the city's overall tax digest. The millage that would produce the same tax revenue, known as the rollback rate, is 11.399 mills.
Alderwoman Kesha Gibson-Carter expressed support for rolling the millage back to 11.399, stating that after council maintained the current rate last year, residents are still reporting inadequate city services.
“The City of Savannah received enormous subsidies and bailouts from the federal government and it is my position that we need to pass on those savings and those bailouts to our residents,” she said
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Following Thursday's workshop, the city held the first of three public millage rate hearings during council's regular 2 p.m. meeting.
No members of the public spoke, but there will be two additional hearings on July 28 at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Residents can also submit comments by emailing ClerkofCouncil@savannahga.gov or by calling 912-651-6441.
Public safety pay increases
While still higher than the rollback, the 12.2 millage rate will allow the city to implement an aggressive public safety pay increase for the Savannah Police and Savannah Fire departments by the end of the month, Melder said.
Under the proposed plan SPD officer pay would increase to $50,013 from $44,330; Corporal pay would increase from $56,280 to $62,422 and sergeants pay would increase from $67,335 to $74,156.
The total annual cost of the increase for SPD is expected to be $3,378,867 and Savannah Fire is expected to cost $896,488.
Starting pay for firefighters would move from $44,000 to $48,000; fire engineer pay would increase from $58,000 to $61, 408; and fire investigator and fire prevention inspector pay would increase from $58,290, to $61,408.
Not only will the starting pay for these ranks be increased, but all of the steps within those ranks would be increased, according to Melder.
"These pay increases are not only what our officers and firefighters deserve to earn, but it's incredibly necessary for us to be as competitive as we can to make sure that we have that we have the competitive advantage to bring in new officers and new firefighters,” he said.
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Other public safety incentives tied to millage rate include a $5,000 new hire sign-on bonus for the police department, a $5,000 retention incentive program for the police department and the creation of a lateral entry program.
"So we think that these incentives and this lateral entry program is an aggressive start to being able to boost our retention and recruitment efforts for the savannah Police Department coupled along with the significant but warranted, raise in officer and firefighter pay," Melder said.
Katie Nussbaum is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at knussbaum@savannahnow.com. Twitter: KnussSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah council gets look at millage rate, public safety pay increases
