Floyd Clears Public Safety Pay Hikes

The Floyd County Commission adopted a millage rate hike Tuesday that includes funding for an increase in public safety pay and cost of living adjustments for all employees.

“We need to pay our folks what they’re worth,” said County Commissioner Scotty Hancock, who chairs the public safety committee.

The 2024 maintenance and operations rate of 9.164 mills the board adopted Tuesday is lower than the advertised rate of 9.414 mills — which was the 2022 property tax rate. But it’s a bump up from 2023, when the board cut the rate to 8.664 mills.

Hancock, Commissioner Rhonda Wallace and Commission Chair Allison Watters voted in favor of the motion. Commissioners Wright Bagby and Larry Maxey voted no.

Hancock’s motion also included the reallocation of $3 million from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding specifically to help cover the pay hikes.

Plans are to start the raises in September — when the city of Rome’s are slated to go into effect — at a cost of about $1.1 million for the four remaining months in the year.

A number of other factors led to the tax increase even before the decision to fund raises. Finance Director Susie Gass noted that keeping the rate the same as in 2023 would leave the county with a deficit of more than $3.5 million. Elections alone are expected to cost $150,000 this year and there are state legislative changes coming that will lead to higher costs as well.

Hancock said the board tried to lower spending this year and froze or cut 30 positions for a savings of over $900,000. But a public safety study shows police and firefighters are woefully underpaid compared to those in nearby departments.

Rome-Floyd Fire Chief Troy Brock and Floyd County Police Chief Mark Wallace spoke at the start of the board’s meeting about the difficulty in hiring new people and keeping the ones they’ve got.

“It’s not new. We’ve been through this before. We have become a training ground for other agencies,” Wallace said.

Hancock said the county can’t compete with big-budget departments such as in Cobb and Bartow counties, but it should not be undercut by neighboring agencies. The average starting pay in the 16-county area is $47,000 compared to $43,000 in Floyd County.

Commissioner Rhonda Wallace agreed.

“We’ve made sacrifices. We’ve cut expenses. And now we’ve got to support our team,” she said.

Hancock, a former emergency management director for the county, spoke about the professionalism and dedication of local public safety personnel. He referred to the July 5 shooting at a Trump rally that killed one man and injured the former president and two others.

“We’ve had two Trump rallies here and we very well could have been on national TV like Butler, Pennsylvania,” Hancock said. “But... I promise you (Assistant Police Chief) Tom Ewing would have put a SWAT team on that building. I don’t care what the Secret Service said. That would have been taken care of.”

Property tax distribution

Of the property tax collected for the county’s maintenance and operations budget, 51% goes to public safety, 17% pays for general government, 12% funds the courts, 9% goes to public works, 2% goes for cultural and recreation activities and 9% funds everything else.

That’s according to a presentation from Gass, who also explained the distribution of property taxes paid by residents in the unincorporated area: County schools get 62% of the revenue, M&O is funded with 30%, another 6% pays for fire protection and 2% goes for solid waste handling.

All property owners pay the county M&O levy.

Rome levies its own city tax for services and those property owners fund the city school system instead of the county system. Cave Spring owners also pay for county schools and solid waste but the city has its own fire department so the fire tax isn’t charged.