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COLUMBUS, Ga. — “Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.” — Aristotle.

The city’s Budget Review Committee recently approved an additional $1.5 million to be added to the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2024, which begins on July 1 of this year. 

The first reading of the city’s complete budget is scheduled for June 13.

Almost all of the additional $1.5 million is coming from the city’s reserves.

The funding requests, which were made through individual city departments and offices, are largely focused on crime reduction, law enforcement, and our city’s court system. 

After hearing from several rounds of presentations from various offices, city councilors voted to either approve or deny each individual item through what is known as the “add/delete list.”

The list effectively serves as a means to balance additional budget requests made by departments.

In theory, as new items are requested to be added to the budget, a corresponding amount must be pulled from somewhere else to cover the cost. 

This year, however, that didn’t happen — and given the state of the city’s current crime epidemic, that’s probably a good thing. 

The roughly $1.5 million in additional funding was not balanced out of other items cut from the budget. Instead, funding was allocated from the city’s reserves, which are effectively like the city’s savings account.

Generally speaking, under normal circumstances, pulling funding from a savings account — from reserves — should only ever be done in an emergency. However, our city councilors appear to finally understand that we are in fact in an emergency: our city’s homicide rate is currently more than six times the national average.

Had this sentiment been realized and — dare we say — acted upon in a timely manner sometime throughout the last ten years, this drastic funding action may not have been immediately required in a reactive manner. 

Now, in order to provide our law enforcement and courts system the resources they need to begin seriously tackling the city’s extreme rates of crime, the additional funds had no other place to come from but reserves. If the funding was cut from other places, it would simply disrupt that area and cause other problems somewhere else.

In short: increased crime rates require increased law enforcement, courts, and jails — and all of that must work hand-in-hand, and all of it is expensive. 

Perhaps our city officials should consider the expensive reality we now find ourselves in instead of erroneously focusing on tOuRiSm for the next decade as the city rapidly descends into a irreparable state of urban decay. 

Here’s a complete itemized look at precisely what our city officials now have no choice but to dedicate more than $1.5 million of budget additions toward. 

CCG FY-2024 ADD/DELETE LIST ITEMS

1. Sheriff: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase in travel funds for training in the amount of $90,000. 
2. Sheriff: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase in non-sworn Bailiff pay from $15/hr. to $20/hr. $20,000. 
3. Clerk of Superior Court: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Add two (2) Deputy Clerk II (G115) in the amount of $93,346. 
4. Clerk of Council: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Reclassify one (1) Part-Time Support Clerk (G111) to One (1) Full-Time Support Clerk (G111) in the amount of $22,041. 
5. Clerk of Council (Request of Councilor Davis): VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Integrated Waste Study in the amount of $10,000. 
6. District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Two (2) Investigator I (G120) in the amount of $110,752. 
7. District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Two (2) Legal Administrative Clerk (G115) in the amount of $93,346. 
8. District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Professional Services in the amount of $2,000. 
9. District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Witness Fees in the amount of $2,500. 
10. District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Other Travel in the amount of $1,500. 
11. District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Litigation / court costs in the amount of $10,000. 
12.  District Attorney’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Education & Training in the amount of $3,500. 
13. Superior Court Judges: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Delete List: Decrease Mobile Phone in the amount of $444. 
14. Superior Court Judges: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Contractual Services in the amount of $16,500. 
15. Superior Court Judges (All Judges): VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Professional Services in the amount of $56,000. 
16. Superior Court Judges (All Judges): VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Postage in the amount of $7,000. 
17. Superior Court Judges (All Judges): VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Copier Charges in the amount of $6,060. 
18. Superior Court Judges (All Judges): VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Office Supplies (To provide $8,000 for all Judges) in the amount of $13,400. 
19. Superior Court Judges: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Muscogee County Supplement from $10,000 to $20,000 for Circuit Wide Court Administrator in the amount of $10,765. 
20. Public Defender’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Amended Contractual Services (includes $4,000 increase for all state contract employees) in the amount of $24,681. 
21. Public Defender’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Amended Request for One (1) Investigator I (G120); Amended Request for One (1) Legal Administrative Clerk (G115) and One (1) Paralegal (G119) in the total amount of $102,049. 
22. Public Defender’s Office: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Amended Request to Reclassify One (1) Legal Administrative Clerk (G115) to one (1) Administrative Coordinator in the amount of $2,905. 
23. Recorder’s Court: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Assistant Chief Deputy Clerk (G122) in the amount of $60,386. 
24. Recorder’s Court: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Finance Manager (G121) in the amount of $57,820. 
25. Recorder’s Court: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Two (2) Deputy Clerk II (G115) in the amount of $93,346. 
26. Parks & Recreation: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Amended amount of $100,000. from reserves for Parks Maintenance. 

Add-On Item: BULL CREEK GOLF COURSE FUND: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Full-Time Marketing Manager $57,980. DELETE: Funds from Godwin Creek and Part-Time Maintenance Intern, Other Operating Expense $57,980.

27.  Tax Commissioner: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Financial Analyst (G123-3) in the amount of $64,217. 
28. Tax Commissioner: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Tax Specialist (G120) in the amount of $55,376.
29. Tax Commissioner: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Technology Support Analyst (G123-3) AMENDED to move the Technology Support Analyst from Tax Commissioner’s Office to the Information Technology Department in the amount of $64,217. 
30. Police Department: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Two (2) Administrative Tech (G115); One (1) Audio Visual Tech (G113); Two (2) Crime Analyst (G120); One (1) Computer Forensic Analyst (G120), Four (4) Real Time Crime Center Tech (G118); Three (3) Crime Scene Investigators (G118) and Operating budget increases of $50,702 in a total amount of $716,362; DELETE LIST: Seventeen (17) Police Cadets (G113) in the amount of $716,362. 
31. Internal Auditor: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Car allowance for Internal Auditor $8,376. 
32. Internal Auditor: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Full-Time Forensic Auditor effective January 2024 $36,944. 
33. Internal Auditor: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Software Lease for Whistleblower Hotline $3,000. 
34. Internal Auditor: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Increase Education & Training $4,227. 
35. Parks & Recreation: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: one (1) Zero Turn Mower $9,118. 
36. Parks & Recreation: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: One (1) Full-Time Parks Maintenance Worker I (G114) and two (2) Part-Time Parks Maintenance Worker I $96,606. 

Add-On Item (Request of Councilor Tucker): Parks & Recreation: VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Three (3) Scoreboards for Rigdon, Shirley B. Winston and Edgewood Parks in the amount of $48,000 each for a total amount of $144,000. 

37. Parks & Recreation: VOTE RESULT: DENIED- Add List: Add all requested personnel from budget presentation $3,399,598. 
38. Parks & Recreation: VOTE RESULT: DENIED- Add List: Add all capital outlay from budget presentation $9,019,971. 

Add-On Item (Request of Mayor Henderson):  VOTE RESULT: APPROVED- Add List: Add $25,000 for Crime Stoppers using funding from OLOST. 

//——END OF LIST——//

You can view the city’s own publication of this list through the summary minutes of the Budget Review Committee’s May 16, 2023 meeting.

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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