Rome budget hearing set for tonight

♦ City Commissioners also set to unveil bans on smoking and street vendors downtown.

A public hearing on Rome’s proposed 2019 budgets is set for tonight at the City Commission meeting. No property tax increase is planned.

Employee merit raises of up to 4 percent are included in the general fund, which covers maintenance and operational expenses. Finance Director Sheree Shore told the city finance committee she is expecting a slight increase in the tax digest — the value of taxable property — next year.

Commissioners also plan to accept on first readings two proposed ordinances regulating activity downtown. One would establish a ban on smoking and vaping along Broad Street and the side alleys. The other would prohibit food trucks and other vendors on public property.

“Most commonly, this activity now occurs with vendors setting up in downtown parking spaces during events,” City Clerk Joe Smith wrote in a memo to City Manager Sammy Rich and City Attorney Andy Davis.

“Even though our policy is not to allow this activity unless permission is given ... I do not think we have a specific ordinance that clearly prohibits it.”

Commissioners caucus at 5 p.m. and start their regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, 601 Broad St. Both sessions are public.

Property owners will have a chance at the start of the regular meeting to weigh in on the proposed budgets, which are scheduled for adoption Dec. 17.

In addition to the general fund, Rome maintains more than two dozen smaller funds for enterprises ranging from the water and sewer utility and transit service to the tennis centers and building inspection department.

Shore said the city and county will each be boosting their contributions to the shared Rome-Floyd County Fire Department by $145,000, equal to 2.3 percent of the total budget.

The city-owned Stonebridge Golf Course is another separate fund. Billy Caspar Golf, which runs the facility, is projecting a deficit of $108,534 for 2019. Revenue is expected to remain static while expenses are expected to be up slightly, Shore said.

No increases are expected next year in the workers compensation and employee health insurance funds.

The budgets include money for several new or unfrozen positions: an assistant public works director, another permit clerk for building inspection, a Municipal Court warrants clerk, three new equipment operators for the water department and an HVAC technician.

The city also plans to hire a detail officer to oversee inmate work crews for the cemetery department and discontinue its inmate labor contract with the county.