Among other news presented during the Auburn City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 19, James Grider, a local retiree spoke up during Citizen's Communications concerning a recent bill put forth by Rep. Pebblin Warren that would affect a mill increase in conjunction with new school funding.
Grider said he recently completed a phone survey concerning funding for a new high school. Later, he saw that Rep. Warren's bill called for a 14 mills increase.
"At 9 mills, with what we pay in state taxes, federal taxes and county taxes, that would mean a 16.7 percent increase in my property tax," Grider said. "At 14 mills, that would be over 20 percent of my property tax."
Grider was alarmed by the 14 million increase and asked the council whether bonds had been an option that was considered.
"In previous years, in other places that I've been, when the school or the city needed money, they put out bonds," Grider said.
Charles Duggan, Jr., city manager, said that the bill's terminology made it confusing.
"It's actually a 9 mill increase," Duggan said."For that special school tax, there's already 5 mills levied, so it takes it to a total of 14. So they're adding the 5 that are already there plus the 9 that are proposed to be voted on by the voters for a total of 14 in that one count."
Duggan also said that bonds would play a part in the bill.
"And approximately $90 to $100 million dollars is anticipated will be borrowed through bonds," Duggan said. "And so bonds will be issued and right now, probably, they'll have a 30 year pay-out period. So it'll be 30 years in the future until they're paid off."
Grider said he was still concerned that he didn't know when the cap would be put on the taxing.
In other news, the council approved an Alcoholic Beverage License for Arigato Sushi Boutique at 140 N. College St.
Members also approved three annual renewals concerning Ad Valorem Property Taxes.
Under city taxes, they approved 5 mills for general purposes and 5 mills for Capital Projects Debt Repayment according to the city council agenda. Under school taxes, 11 mills and 5 mills were approved for educational purposes.
The council also passed a resolution for a contract to help assist the city's survey of its utilities, called the Utility Mapping Project which would spend $666,666.66 equally from the Sewer Enterprise Fund and General Fund over three years according to the city council agenda.
Duggan said it would be like an inventory of things like pipes, man holes and water pipes to ensure that the city knows exactly where its utilities are.
"This is identifying a lot of things that we want to make sure don't get lost," Duggan said.
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