GUYTON — In a special called meeting Friday night, the Guyton City Council adopted a millage rate of 3.655 — one point higher than last year.

The tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $150,000 is approximately $75.06 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $100,000 is approximately $50.94.

During a series if public hearings that wrapped up Thursday, Mayor Jeff Lariscy explained the need for the hike.

“The rollback millage rate for the city would be 2.655 mills,” the mayor said during the final hearing Thursday night. “That would generate, on our current tax base, the same amount of revenue as we generated last year. However, a little background there, in 2016, the (Effingham County Board of Commissioners’) millage rate for maintenance and operations was 8.337 mills. In 2017, they rolled that back to 6.558 mills for everybody — the county, municipalities, everyone —which is a difference of 1.779 mills.

“What happened that year, also, though, is that they decided that they would no longer make service delivery payments to the municipalities, which cost Guyton approximately $40,000 in 2017 and, subsequently, in 2018. So we are playing a playing a little bit of catch-up.”

Lariscy explained that the commission’s lower rate for maintenance and operations without a corresponding increase in Guyton gave Guyton residents a two-year tax break.

“You didn’t see it on your city taxes but you saw it on your county taxes,” he said. “That’s what the county’s contention was, ‘Why is the county taxing citizens at that rate and then distributing the money to the municipalities when the municipalities could raise their millage rates and it be more reflective of where the money is going.

“That was their plan.”

Lariscy explained that a millage rate of 3.655 is necessary to fund a budget that the council has already approved.

“That does include consideration for fire service that may be relieved by going with the county but that hasn’t been solidified yet,” he said.

For more than a month, Guyton and county officials have been working on an agreement for Effingham County Fire Rescue to take over fire protection in Guyton.

“We hope to have that agreed upon soon,” the mayor said.

Post 4 Council Member Michael Johnson recommended adopting the rollback millage if an accord was reached. Lariscy, however, interjected that an deal was unlikely to be reached before Friday’s deadline to notify county tax officials what Guyton’s millage rate for the coming year would be.

Lariscy noted that the City of Guyton will continue to have to make an annual payment of $25,000 on two fire trucks even if the county takes over fire protection responsibilities in the city. Guyton’s budget includes about $140,00 for fire service.

He said, “We may well benefit from moving fire services to the county and it be a plus to our budget but let me just assure you that there is a street that needs to be paved that could be paved that could be paid out of these funds. There is a project that could be done that could benefit the citizens of the city that that money could go to.

“There is no doubt that there is a project that we need to do that those funds can address if we keep it at 3.655.”

Johnson said that the council should “pinpoint” those projects and use the funds accordingly.