Macon City Council Approves Money to Pay for Consolidation

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon City Council finally approved the money needed to pay for consolidation costs.

The city is supposed to pay $250,000 to help cover consultant fees. So far, the City of Macon has paid $20,000, but did it without city council’s approval.

During Tuesday nights City Council meeting, council members voted to approve footing the bill on two conditions: they won’t use the money to pay for services that already happened and they’re dropping the total cost to $230,000.

Councilwoman Elaine Lucas voted against the ordinance, saying the city is basically writing a blank check to the c|Consolidation Transition Task Force.

“They can simply take that money and spend it as they wish and I think that’s reckless, I think it’s unwise, and I think it’s a dilution of the voting strength of all the people when you give up your taxpayer’s money to a body that can handle it anyway they want to,” Lucas said.

Councilman Rick Hutto says it is the city’s responsibility to help pay for consolidation and he hopes the task force will keep council in the loop.

“Technically, they are not required to come back to us and say, ‘This is what we spent it for,’ however I would hope that they would reciprocate our moral obligation and come back on their own and say this is how we spent your funds,” Hutto said.

Consolidation is expected to cost more than half a million dollars. Bibb County is fronting the other half of the bill.

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Prior to Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, the Community Resources and Development Committee met to figure out ot to raise money for Second Street revitalization projects.

The committee approved an amendment to extend the area covered under the Second Street Corridor Tax Allocation District all the way to Little Richard Penniman Boulevard and Mercer University Boulevard. The idea is to revitalize the district and freeze current property values along the corridor. Any increase in property value because of the improvements will go towards paying the costs of redeveloping the area.

Macon Mayor Robert Reichert says this will help revamp the corridor and create a new gateway into downtown.

“We wanted to include this area that so desperately needs reinvestment, revitalization, and infrastructure improvements so that hopefully we can jumpstart redevelopment on the west side of the interstate at the intersection of Mercer University Boulevard,” Reichert said.

City Council will vote on the changes during a special called meeting on Friday. Since this is a proposed tax change, the Bibb County Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education must approve the amendment before it can go into effect.