For Ward 4 Columbus councilman, Thursday’s first special-call council meeting was short and sweet.
Beard, who defeated Kegdra Gibbs-Gray in Tuesday’s special election runoff to fill Fred Jackson’s unfinished term, was sworn in before the meeting, with dozens of friends and family packing the upstairs courtroom at City Hall.
The council meeting itself lasted less than 10 minutes, as members formally approved the Fiscal Year 2020 budget, the lone item on the agenda, unanimously and without discussion.
The third and final version of the budget sets expenditures at $23,928,258 with a surplus of $439,517. To achieve that, the city had earlier passed a 3.65 mill increase. The value of a mill has decreased by $3,000 to $189,000.
The millage rates increases from 47.59 to 51.24 and will mean an additional $36 in property taxes for a $100,000 valuation.
“I feel good about it,” said Mayor Robert Smith. “It’s a workable budget and true numbers we can work with in the upcoming fiscal year. I do feel real good about it.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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