Proposed Athens-Clarke budget includes $1 million for affordable housing 'strike fund'

Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz is proposing a $193.7 million general fund budget for the new fiscal year beginning July 1.

The mayor’s spending proposal represents a $7 million increase over the current fiscal year, but it leaves the property tax millage rate unchanged at 12.45 mills.

The spending plan, based in part on a draft prepared by county government management, includes a 4% pay increase for all county employees, along with an outlay for overtime pay needs for police and public safety personnel.

Outside of the general fund, Girtz is also looking for commission approval of a $1 million outlay for an affordable housing “strike fund.”

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At a recent public hearing and Athens-Clarke County Commission work session on the budget proposal, Girtz described the “strike fund” initiative as a means of purchasing abandoned or distressed properties to ensure they become affordable local housing stock, rather than seeing them go to real estate investors who could develop them into properties beyond the means of many people.

While the millage rate – a fractional multiplier applied to the taxable value of a property to arrive at a tax bill – remains unchanged in the budget proposed for the 2025 fiscal year, that does not mean that property tax bills will remain unchanged.

County finance staff members said property values have been increasing in the county, meaning that tax bills for individual properties could increase, even with the same millage rate as last year.

According to online real estate marketing websites, average homes prices across the county are up by 6% to 7% over last year. Property tax bills are based on appraisals by the county tax assessor’s office, which operates independently of the county’s budget process. And, just as it’s possible that some property owners could see tax increases even with a static millage rate, some property owners could see no change, or possibly even decreases, in their tax bills.

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The proposed general fund budget includes money for 13 new positions, including three new firefighter/emergency medical technicians, a municipal court clerk, a grants coordinator, an additional tax appraiser and a new traffic engineering technician.

Also included in the budget proposal is a new assistant county manager, which got some limited pushback. The position, budgeted at just $52,000 because it wouldn’t be filled before the quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, is needed, County Manager Blaine Williams told commissioners.

Adding a third assistant manager to the manager’s office staff would, Williams explained, reduce his and the existing assistant managers’ workload. Currently, nearly 30 of the more than 40 departments within the county government report to the manager and assistant managers.

That circumstance, Williams contended, means that the manager’s office is “not leading our department directors, we’re just putting out fires.”

Williams went on suggest to commissioners that while he believes he is expected “to be out in the community,” his workload -- which includes dealing with more than 100 daily emails and being readily available to the mayor and the county’s 10 district commissioners -- leaves him with “not a lot of room … to be in the community.”

“I have 11 bosses,” Williams said, referencing the mayor and commission and admitting to them that in the current situation, “I don’t feel like I’m satisfying y’all on certain levels.”

Public hearings on the 2025 budget proposal are set for 6 p.m. May 22 at 595 Prince Ave., and for 6 p.m. June 5 at the same location prior to the commission’s anticipated final action on the spending plan.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Proposed Athens-Clarke budget includes $1 million for affordable housing 'strike fund'