Macon-Bibb’s 2027 budget proposal anticipates no tax rate increase, boosts public safety spending

Bibb County property taxes for the upcoming fiscal year will hold steady under a budget proposed this week by Mayor Lester Miller, though the sheriff’s office would receive a $3.4 million boost while funding for courts would decrease by nearly $302,000.

A public hearing on the budget is set for June 2 at 5:30 p.m. at Macon City Hall.

Occasionally glancing down at documents in a three-inch white binder on the podium in City Hall on Tuesday, Miller presented what he described as “a very lean” and “balanced” 2027 budget for Macon-Bibb County. 

The budget proposes $221.5 million in revenue and $221.5 million in expenses for the fiscal year that starts July 1. That’s about $1.7 million more than the budget for the current fiscal year and about $22.7 million more than the 2021 budget of $99.9 million. 

The county is bringing in more money and spending more money than it did in 2021, when the millage rate was nearly double the current 9.575 rate.

“We’ve been planning this for a while, and we’re in good shape,” Miller said Tuesday of his proposed budget, which Macon-Bibb County commissioners saw for the first time at the meeting. Commissioner Paul Bronson was absent.

The budget assumes maintaining about the same millage rate, which commissioners typically vote on in the coming months after the budget is approved.

Miller said he asked departments to find ways to cut their budgets by 10%. The exception to that was public safety, for which the mayor proposes a total budget increase of $3.6 million compared to last year.

In addition to the sheriff’s office, the budget proposal also includes increases for the fire department, emergency management agency, code enforcement and the coroner’s office.

All told, the mayor proposes $125.8 million for public safety. Of that, $61.5 million is earmarked for the sheriff’s office.

Public safety comprises about 57% of the county’s budget, Miller said, “and that’s mostly employees and benefits. That doesn’t include the cost to the jail, equipment, technology and those types of things.”

Budget increases are also being proposed for a few other departments.

The information technology department, which the mayor proposes funding at $9.1 million, could see an increase of nearly half a million dollars compared to the current fiscal year’s budget. The proposal includes more than a quarter-million-dollar increase for the recreation department, for which he proposes a $8 million budget.

The proposed budget for parks and beautification includes a reduction of about $392,000 compared to its current budget of $4.7 million.

Miller said the county is “doing much, much more with a lot less.”

“We’ve made up for decreasing property taxes by increasing sales taxes,” Miller said.

He cited rising costs for pensions, healthcare, trash pickup and waste management due to the rising gas prices and the Consumer Price Index, an economic indicator set by the U.S. Department of Labor on which an untold number of county contracts depend upon for contractual annual cost adjustments.

Previous administrations — and other elected bodies, such as the Bibb County Board of Education — typically provide the public details about its reserves or its “fund balance.” 

Miller has not included those figures in budget presentations, but county spokesperson Chris Floore said the county has a fund balance that is is “way above our 60-day [operating cost] requirement” of about $40-42 million. Floore was unable to provide a total for the fund balance by The Melody’s deadline Wednesday.

Miller noted after the meeting that the fund balance “doesn’t really trigger anything for us” unless it falls below the amount needed to fund the government for 60 days. That number, Floore said, depends on each year’s approved budget.

County commissioners had little to say about the budget immediately after the mayor’s presentation.

“We just got a hold of it,” Commissioner Raymond Wilder said. “It’s hard to have an opinion yet.”

Mayor Pro Tem Valerie Wynn said she thinks the budget is a good one because of the minimal increase in spending.

“We’ve done real well over the last couple of years about keeping that budget under control,” she said. “I think it’s being increased where it should be increased, and that’s public safety.”

Commissioner Stanley Stewart said he wanted to study the budget to ensure it serves the people.

Commissioner Bill Howell said “it is always good to maintain the millage rate. I understand that if we have to have an increase, we have to have an increase, but there are certain things we can’t cut out of our budget. It’s one thing to have a lean budget and it’s another thing to have a budget that’s not doable.”  

Even as the county begins the budgeting process for 2027, the audit for fiscal year 2025 is not yet publicly available. 

State law says municipalities have 180 days after the close of their fiscal year to submit an audit, but Macon-Bibb County has missed that deadline each year since 2022, according to data from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

To view the mayor’s proposed budget’s line items, obtained by The Melody through an open records request, click here.