The Bainbridge City Council is making a mistake by increasing taxes by two mills at this point in the fiscal year. If this millage rate increase is passed, city residents will have seen an increase of 6.75 mills in the past three years (three mills from the Board of Education in 2012 and 1.75 mills from Decatur County in 2013).

The only difference residents will see as a result of this newest tax increase is less money in their wallets.

The City of Bainbridge needs to take a cue from every financially responsible private business and household in the country—adjust your expenses to meet your revenue, not your revenue to meet your expenses. This is finance 101. Taking more money from taxpayers to put more money reserves is not the answer to funding Bainbridge services.

We urge the City Council look closely at as many other possible alternatives before raising taxes on Bainbridge residents.

Instead of raising taxes by two mills, the city should take a lesson from the county. Last year, instead of raising the millage rate by three mills like it had originally planned, Decatur County budgeted 1.75 mills to see if it really needed the tax increase.

It turns out the experiment saved county taxpayers from an additional 1.25 mills when the commissioners realized their budget didn’t need it.
Enough is enough. More revenue for reserves is important for a thriving city, but we believe the City of Bainbridge has picked an arbitrary number for the tax increase and should make absolutely certain there are no alternatives.