WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (Ghost Studios) – Warner Robins City Hall was packed with residents as the third hearing discussing an increase to 2026 property taxes took place Monday night.
James Drinkard, City Administrator for Warner Robins, started the session explaining the motives behind the increases saying the city government has no choice, but to turn back the clock from a ruling in 2024 as non-optional expenses, such as asphalt, concrete, and pipes, have significantly increased over the years, saying they can’t control costs and will also have to amend the budget in October, making cuts over $11.6 million and are current looking to cut costs even more.
“As a community grows, tough decisions have to be made,” said Drinkard.
He also encouraged the community to look at the operating budget on the city’s website, also mentioning audits take place every year by a third party so people can see where the money is going.
Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick, cited other city bills such as water which is up by 40% and expected to go up another 40% and says the city is suffering from a local ruling made in the 80s and they are working to find other sources of revenue, such as asking state legislature for a another penny for the local option sales tax, so they don’t have to rely on property taxes so much, as the city receives significantly less than their neighbors as most revenue goes to the school district.
As the mic opened for residents, one older gentlemen, who says he’s been living in Warner Robins since 1954, says time and time again he hears from officials that local option sales tax money will reduce taxes, but according to him it never has and never will, he also requested that a forensic audit take place as people have not been doing their jobs over the years, citing a particular case of commingled money with Houston County.
Mayor Patrick clarified and said that particular money was considered a county wide project.
Another resident claims the city government is out of touch with reality as they are not thinking about the average resident, who may only be working a restaurant job. She also claims she looked over the budget as she has a background in that field and cited city employee raises that were well over 10%.
Mayor Patrick also clarified saying the raises were because critical city staff, such as police and firefighters, were dropping like flies as nearby cities were paying more.
As the council members gave their ending thoughts the consensus was that this was an unpredictable situation and hard decisions had to be made.
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