Athens voters will see a proposed 0.20% municipal income tax increase on the primary election ballot. Athens City Treasurer Josh Thomas said the new proposal comes after a state audit found city expenses are rising faster than revenues.
For residents earning about $30,000 annually, the increase would amount to approximately $60 more per year in income taxes.
The proposal follows a similar measure in the 2025 primary election, when a 0.30% increase was placed on the ballot and rejected by voters.
Thomas said if the trend continues, it could create long-term financial challenges.
“We lowered the rate a little bit,” Thomas said. “We listened to the voters as well. A lot of things people told us were, ‘Can you cut expenses and do things like that?’ So actually, the city did. We passed a budget this year that was lower, a flatter budget than we'd ever seen, so we did a lot of cutting expenses, but we still felt like we needed to talk about revenue as well.”
If approved, revenue from the increase would go into the city’s general fund, which primarily supports essential services such as police and fire departments. Thomas said about 75% of the general fund is allocated to payroll, and the additional revenue would not fund new initiatives.
“Our plan is not to try to expand anything,” Thomas said. “It's not to do anything new. What we basically want to do is just maintain what the city already has.”
Athens City Councilmember John Staser, D-2nd Ward, said the increase would help delay the projected budget imbalance.
“The 0.2% tax increase will delay the point at which expenses outpace revenue to 2032 and will give the city time to further reduce expenses,” Staser said in an email. “We need to address the impending budget issues now (expenses outpacing revenue) because the city revenue lags expenses by about a year; a tax increase improved in 2026 will not start impacting revenue until 2027.”
Staser said he knows residents may be hesitant to support a tax increase but emphasized that it is beneficial for the city.
“I understand that there is hesitation anytime a tax increase is proposed, but I would urge city residents to seek out information about the proposed tax increase and why it is needed,” Staser said in an email. “This isn't being proposed to fund new programs or services, merely to maintain the current programs and services that the city provides by responding to increased expenses for these programs and services.”
Athens City Councilmember Beth Clodfelter, D-At Large, said if the income tax increase does not pass, services might change in the city.
“The prices for the Athens local government have been rising a lot: asphalt, water salt, health care, electricity bills, etc.,” Clodfelter said in an email. “If this tax increase does not get approved by the voters, then there will likely be reductions in city services that everyone likes and expects.”
Clodfelter also said if the income tax increase fails, the Community Center and the City swimming pool might have fewer open hours and fewer classes, and it could take longer for potholes to get filled or streets to get repaved.
She said if the proposal is approved, Athens City buses will start running on Saturdays again for the first time in years.
Thomas also noted the voter hesitancy and said the city is working to provide more information to voters ahead of the election.
“There's still a lot of hard things happening in the world,” Thomas said. “Having a war going on right now doesn't help, so it's been a mixed reaction, but we're hopeful with putting the information out there, people might listen.”
To address questions, Thomas created a brief video presentation explaining the proposal.
In the video, Thomas said projected city revenue growth is about 5.02%, while expenses are expected to grow at approximately 6.54%.
Thomas also said Athens’ tax structure is comparable to other college towns, where municipal costs can be higher.
“When you look at some of the university towns, you might see they're a little bit higher because you need the money to support those things,” Thomas said.
Although some voters remain undecided, Thomas said the timing of the proposal is critical due to delays in when new tax revenue would take effect.
“People ask, ‘Why are we doing this? Do we have to do this now?’ And the one thing we really like to stress to people is, yeah, we kind of do,” Thomas said. “We need to do this now because we're not even going to really see this extra revenue for another year and a half.”
