Toccoa Approves FY 16 Budget

The city of Toccoa has its budget in place for Fiscal Year 2016.

Toccoa City Commissioners unanimously approved the budget for next fiscal year at their meeting Monday.

Toccoa’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget totals just under $36.2 million and includes no change in the millage rate for city property owners and no change in utility rates for city water and gas customers.

City Manager Billy Morse said he thinks it is a great budget that Toccoa Commissioners adopted Monday.

“It feels really good and I think all the credit goes to the city commission and their ability to work with our department heads,” said Morse. “As a team, we worked through it all and now it is approved six weeks early. I feel really good about it.”

Morse said the Fiscal Year 2016 operating budget is about 8.55 percent higher than the Fiscal Year 2015 city budget.

He said that increase comes from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, funds put aside for designated projects, as well as funds budgeted for the Davidson Creek Dredging Project.

In fact, Morse said that operating fund budgets, which include the general fund and the utility funds, are actually proposed to go down by about two percent.

Toccoa Mayor Terry Carter said he is also pleased with the budget process and how the budget came out.

“I would like to thank the city manager and department heads for their hard work in preparing this year’s budget,” said Carter.

Carter also pointed to the where the city plans to increase its reserve accounts by almost $800,000 in the next fiscal year.

The Fiscal Year 2016 budget for the city of Toccoa takes effect on July 1.