Franklin Springs City Council to Meet This Evening

At their regular meeting tonight, the Franklin Springs City Council is expected to follow Lavonia, Canon, and Royston City Councils and approve a resolution asking Franklin County to lift the extra millage imposed on municipalities.

Earlier this week, Mayor Lee Moore said he agrees with Lavonia Mayor Courtney Umbehant that the higher millage is unfair to his citizens.

“I commend (Mayor) Courtney for taking the initiative to stop kicking the can down the road and doing something about this. So, he’s the one who’s led this. I do know that Royston has passed it and Canon has passed it and Lavonia has. Franklin Springs is going to discuss it Thursday and hopefully vote on it and pass it,” Mayor Moore said.

Mayor Umbehant first announced his plan to bring the resolution before the Franklin County Commission at their next work session at the Lavonia City Council meeting earlier this month.

“If you’re a resident and taxpayer in Lavonia or any municipality, you’re paying one mil higher than anybody who lives outside the city limits in the County,” he explained. “And that’s what this resolution is about. It’s my intention to get on the agenda for the Commissioners’ work session at the end of the month and present this resolution to them, asking the County to equalize and treat our city residents the same as those who are not city residents.”

Moore said the idea of equalizing the millage rate for all Franklin County citizens is not new but has been discussed over the years.

“Actually, this is something that has been discussed for several years – for the last three or four years. Myself and the previous (Royston) Mayor Jordan had talked about this. This is something we had talked about to try and get some relief for our citizens and get the millage back to where our citizens are paying the same millage rate as those in the county,” Mayor Moore said.

In other business tonight, the City Council is expected to approve a rollback of one mill on the FY2023 millage from 6 mils to 5 mils.

Tonight’s Fr. Springs City Council meeting begins at 5:30p this evening at Fr. Springs City Hall and is open to the public.