Dec 7, 2024 By Paul Paterra 3 min read

For the first time in five years, residents of the city of Washington will see their taxes increase.

Council had the final reading Thursday of a $15.2 million spending plan that sets the millage for buildings at 5.53 mills, an increase of 1.5 mills. The millage rate for land is 38.71.

Councilman Ken Westcott, who chairs the finance department, said the average homeowner will pay an additional $180 in taxes. When the preliminary budget was approved in November, Westcott said that figure would be $220.

“I didn’t take into account that we repealed Act 205,” Westcott said. “That will reduce that down. After running all the numbers, we were looking at a 3-or-4-mill tax increase until we did the refinancing of the bonds and took a harder look at some cuts. Holding it to a mill and a half, I think we did a great job to get it there.”

The city repealed the Act 205 distressed pension tax earlier this year as a means to save money. Keeping that tax in place would have added about $300,000 to the city’s contribution this year. Combining that action with a move to refinance the pension bond saved the city about $500,000 in pension payments.

Mayor JoJo Burgess reiterated his unhappiness about having to raise taxes, citing those who don’t pay as a reason for the increase.

“I’m not happy about the tax increase,” Burgess said. “We have people who are not paying their fair share and because of that others have to suffer. This is why we have to increase as much as we had to.”

At Monday’s agenda meeting, he vowed to go after those who are not paying their taxes.

Also, council unanimously approved three contracts Thursday.

A five-year contract with the police department was approved retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024. It includes a 3% annual increase.

Also approved was a collective bargaining agreement with the fire department. It also is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024, and runs through Dec. 31, 2028. The deal includes an annual salary increase of 3%.

A three-year pact was approved for the Service Employees International Union, which represents about six or seven employees in the treasurer’s office, police department and parking authority. The deal runs from 2025-2027 and includes an increase of about 5% each year.

“Everybody got what they thought was fair raises,” Burgess said of the contracts. “When I first took over the negotiations this year, police and fire were headed to arbitration. To be able to not have that happen is huge because nobody wins with arbitration. We were able to get into the room and settle some things that, quite frankly, will benefit the city in the future.”

Other actions approved Thursday included:

Promoting Lt. Carl “CJ” Martin to captain effective Jan. 1, 2025.

Promoting Police Officer Jordan Faust to corporal effective Dec. 5.

Appointing Harshman CE Group as building code official effective Jan. 5, 2025.

“We’ve got some projects coming up where we feel we need to do some things differently than we’ve done in the past,” Burgess explained. “It’s nothing against anything the old (building code official) did with us. Some things had to be done a little differently and we made that difficult choice.”