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After two weeks to mull it over and hear from the public, the LaGrange City Council discussed potential budget cuts, including a planned raise for city employees.

On May 13, City Manager Patrick Bowie presented the proposed FY 2025-26. During the council’s work session on Tuesday, before the public hearing, the council discussed the draft budget and potential electric, gas and sanitation service rate increases. Rather than collecting a property tax, the City of LaGrange pays for its operating costs out of utility enterprise funds and has done so for 27 years.

Despite the increases, LaGrange utility rates remain lower than other nearby providers, like Georgia Power or Diverse Power. The proposed increases would have the average household going up about $5.81 per month for electricity and $6.43 for gas. Garbage pickup for 68-gallon cans would go up $1.20, and 85 cents for 96-gallon cans.

Bowie said the proposed changes were very moderate, despite losing the city’s largest utility customer, Jindal Films, which cost the city about $2 million.

“Despite that loss, we still are able to go with no property tax and very competitive utility rates,” Bowie said.

Bowie noted that the General Fund, which contains most of the expenses associated with running the city, including the police, fire and roads department, only increased about 1.85 percent. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has inflation at 2.3 percent, he said.

“We’ve seen inflation of about 2.3 percent in the CPI and the general funds going up about 1.85 percent, so less than the rate of inflation. So I think that’s all good news for the citizens, and we’re trying to do everything we can to hold our costs down and provide the kind of services that are expected for the city,” Bowie said.

Council Member Mark Mitchell suggested there were things from the budget that could be cut that could potentially alleviate some of the need for the rate increase, like retrofitting unused rapid response trucks from the fire department to another department.

In total, the rate increases are expected to bring in about $2.6 million for next year’s budget. Mitchell suggested potentially eliminating a number of line items, including a 5 percent pay raise for city employees who qualify.

Mitchell questioned the necessity of giving employees raises every year, which it has done for around two decades.

“I don’t know of any other agency that I can think of, anywhere that’s gotten a 5% raise every year. I appreciate all our employees, but knowing what I know is coming down the hatch, just like you do, this is making it hard on me this year,” Mitchell said, suggesting that city costs will continue to rise.

Bowie suggested that employee raises are less about the morale of employees and more about keeping good, trained employees.

“When you turn over employees and have to retrain, it costs money too,” Mayor Jim Arrington said.

Assistant City Manager  Bill Bulloch echoed that well-paid employees produce better results.

“Our staff are cut above, they truly are, because I’ve worked a lot of different places of working in state government, and I will say they’re way more responsive and considerate here, and they do a great job,” Bulloch said.

Bowie said the majority of city employees are in the low $20 per hour range, with some departments like line workers earning more. More dangerous jobs, such as police officers, earn significantly more.

The 5 percent increase also only goes up to the max pay for the jobs, Bowie said.

“Everything’s up. I mean, hamburgers are up. Everywhere you go, it costs more money,” Bowie said. “Our general fund is only up 1.5 percent, so we’re running below inflation, which is good for our citizens.”