Big time savings could be right around the corner for Macon. Monday night Macon City Council’s Ordinances and Resolutions Committee voted to approve a new service delivery strategy.
“A great step forward for the city and BibbCounty and also for BibbCounty because it clarifies a lot of the double taxation issues,” said Councilman Mike Cranford.
The strategy brings relief to tax payers who pay certain taxes for both Macon and BibbCounty. Mayor Reichert is confident the strategy will bring money savings for middle Georgia. The biggest change in the plan will happen in its 2nd year of implementation.
“The engineering department will merged in with BibbCounty, traffic engineering will also be conveyed over to the county as well as inspections and fees and animal control,” said Reichert.
A penny tax for BibbCounty is crucial for the success of the strategy.
“The big ticket items, is that we will both seek a SPLOST in 2011 for purposes of allowing the county to take over recreation county wide,” said Cranford.
All the talk of full consolidation between Macon and BibbCounty made the process of this strategy smooth for Mayor Reichert.
“The willingness of the citizens of Macon and BibbCounty to consider consolidation and seeing the wisdom of it certainly helped with this functional consolidation of several departments between city and county,” said Reichert.
In the first year of the service strategy BibbCounty will take over The Board of Elections, Macon Economic Development Authority, and planning and zoning. The strategy will save Macon an estimated $350-thousand dollars in the first year and $5.5 million in the second year.
The service delivery strategy will go before the full council Tuesday for a vote.
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