SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – Today, Savannah City Council will decide how much money they need to collect from taxpayers next year.
Under the proposal most people would see an increase in their property taxes, but what does the city plan to do with the additional funds coming in?
The focus right now is public safety and increasing the pay for firefighters and police. That would come at a price for tax payers. If your home is valued at $100,000, you would pay an additional $32 in taxes under this proposal.
Mayor Van Johnson says they need to increase pay to not only attract new workers but retain current ones.
Right now the starting salary for city police officers and firefighters is around $44,000. They have proposed increasing that to $48,000 for firefighters and $50,000 for starting officers.
Under the proposal, Savannah Police would also offer a $5,000 new hire sign on bonus and a two year retention incentive of $5,000.
“We are responsible for public safety and so these nine individuals have to decide whether the pennies of tax savings is worth us really being able to make our police department competitive. This puts us on a competitive scale nationally so I am very interested in this passing,” said Mayor Van Johnson.
Council will vote tonight during their meeting at 6:30 p.m. on the new millage rate, which determines how much you pay for property taxes.
But before the vote, you are able to share your thoughts on the proposal. There are two public hearings today at City Hall. The first one at 10 a.m. and the second one during the council meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m.
The millage rate can be confusing but that is what the city uses to calculate how much you pay in property taxes.
Here is how it works…
Right now the millage rate for the City is at 12.739 mills. They are proposing a reduction of about half a mill, which would bring it down to 12.2 mills.
Even though that is a reduction, most people will see an increase in their taxes because property values have increased.
The only way the mill reduction would actually completely even out and you would not pay more is if the City rolled back the rate even further to 11.399 mills. But the mayor says because of the current economic climate, that is why they are only proposing to roll it back to 12.2, which would be the lowest millage rate for the city in 35 years.
“If we roll it back all the way we will continue to lose in the arms race for police and fire, we just will and so I am challenging my council members for us to do the right thing, make sure that our police department has everything that they need and make sure those that choose to stay with the Savannah police department are rewarded,” said Mayor Johnson.
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