City of Hinesville residents may be looking at a slight cut in their millage rate for the coming fiscal year.

Tina Kitchings of the city’s finance department presented council members with a draft fiscal year 2025 budget that calls for approximately $29.9 million in general fund revenues and expenditures and also projects to cut the city’s millage rate from 10.15 to 10.1 mills.

Mayor Karl Riles praised the finance department and the city staff who put the budget together and added the council members go through it line-by-line.

“You guys did a fantastic job,” he said.

The budget includes adjustments for a salary survey, plus changes to the contract with ESG for a 2.9% cost of living adjustment and for longevity pay.

The city’s total budget, including its enterprise funds, such as water and sewer, is $54.2 million. There are no increases in water and sewer rates for the coming year, Kitchings pointed out, but garbage and dry trash rates are going up. The last increase for garbage and dry trash was done in 2014, she said.

The city also is buying a new garbage truck and a new dry trash truck, according to the budget.

The city also is increasing its contribution of employees’ health insurance coverage from 70% to 75%. The proposed budget also calls for one additional person in the city’s finance department, to start March 1, and changing a training engineer position in the fire department to a training captain, along with creating that position. It also calls for two new fire fighters, to be brought on board beginning May 1. Uniform allowances for fire fighters and police officers also are increasing.

Under the draft budget, the city is setting $300,000 for operating reserve and will be putting in a 3% credit card transaction fee.

The city is projecting a conservative increase in its local option sales tax, or LOST, proceeds, with a 3% rise in revenues from that. In addition, the city is projecting taking its transit service in-house. Currently, a third-party provider is contracted to run the city’s bus system but once the city takes it over, the current mobility manager would become the transit director. The city also will add six bus drivers, two dispatcher/ road supervisors and one lead bus operator to its employees from the contractor.

The city is projecting to take the transit service in house by December 30.

Council members are expected to take up the budget for approval at their October 17 meeting, and once approved, the budget will go into effect January 1, 2025.