What Macon-Bibb County’s government plans to spend this year, what it pays for, where the money comes from, how past plans turned out, and when you can have a say. New to budgets? Start with “What is a budget?” →
$221.5M
the everyday budget (General Fund)
$479.3M
every county fund together
$1,406
everyday budget per resident
+0.8%
everyday budget vs. budget year 2026
Adopted. July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027. The Commission adopted it unanimously on June 16, 2026, according to the meeting minutes, after a public hearing on June 2. Per resident: the Census estimate of 157,556 people (2025).
Not in this budget: the public schools, which have their own elected board and budget (further down), and water and sewer, which the Macon Water Authority runs on its own budget.
Which money?
The General Fund — the recurring account that pays for police, fire, courts, parks and the rest of day-to-day government.
You’re seeing the plan, not the receipts. These are the figures the County Commission adopted for budget year 2027 — what the county intends to spend. For what past budgets really spent, see the audited books below.
What it pays for
Here’s where one dollar of the everyday budget goes.
Each colored square = one penny of every dollar. Tap a color (or a name below) to see what’s inside.
One way to slice it. Departments are grouped to make this easier to read. Tap any group to see the real departments and dollar figures underneath.
Source: Macon-Bibb FY2027 budget ordinance, final version adopted June 16, 2026. See it for yourself in the adopted budget ordinance (Exhibit A, pp. 4–7; department detail, pp. 8–16) or the Mayor’s proposed budget book, which has each department’s own request and explanation.
Where the money comes from
Mostly two taxes, and a handful of smaller sources.
In budget year 2025 — the latest year with audited books — the everyday budget took in $219.5 million. Here is where each dollar came from.
Sales tax
41¢ · $89.6 million
Collected at the register on most purchases in Macon-Bibb — from residents and from visitors who shop here.
How the 8% splits
Most purchases in Macon-Bibb carry an 8% sales tax: 8 cents on a dollar. The State of Georgia keeps 4 cents; the other 4 are local pennies, each approved for its own purpose.
On $100 of most purchases, that is $8: $4 to the state, $2 to the county's everyday budget (LOST and OLOST), $1 to county building projects (SPLOST) and $1 to school projects (ESPLOST). Groceries are taxed differently.
LOST1¢The local option sales tax, in place since 1979. It pays for the county government's everyday work — and state law ties it to a property-tax cut, below. Part of the everyday budget above.
OLOST1¢A second everyday penny voters approved in November 2021, collected since January 2022 — about $44.7 million in budget year 2025, roughly half of the everyday budget's sales-tax money. State law allows it only alongside property-tax relief. The state lists it as ending December 31, 2026; the county's 2021 referendum ordinance says it runs through 2027. Part of the everyday budget above.
SPLOST1¢Only for the building projects on a list voters approve — roads, public safety, parks, government buildings — never salaries. The current round, $450 million approved in March 2025, began January 1, 2026.
ESPLOST1¢The school district's penny, for school buildings, buses, technology and safety. After the previous term ended in September 2025, voters approved a new one that November; it runs from April 1, 2026, to March 31, 2031.
LOST and OLOST are the “sales tax” line in the everyday budget. SPLOST money sits in its own funds, and ESPLOST belongs to the school district. What are LOST and OLOST? · What is SPLOST?
Property tax
32¢ · $69.2 million
A yearly bill on homes, land and business property, based on what the property is assessed at.
What the bill looks like on a home
The bill carries two rates, each set by its own elected board: the county’s 9.575 mills and the school district’s 14.674 mills for the 2026 tax year, both adopted September 9, 2026. About 61¢ of every property-tax dollar on the bill goes to the schools. Renters don’t get a bill; the property owner does.
A year’s bill on a home its owner lives in
Home worth
County
Schools
Total
$150,000
$507
$778
$1,285
$200,000
$699
$1,071
$1,770
$300,000
$1,082
$1,658
$2,740
Georgia taxes 40% of a home’s market value; for a home its owner lives in, the standard Macon-Bibb homestead exemption takes $7,000 off that; each rate is dollars per $1,000 of what is left. An example, not your bill — yours depends on your assessed value, other exemptions you have filed, and any special district. Your actual bill is with the Tax Commissioner.
The 2026 tax-year rates were the same as 2025’s. Property values rose, so each was above its “rollback rate” — the rate that would have raised about the same money as the year before — and, under state law, was advertised as a tax increase. How that works → · What is a millage rate?
Other taxes
16¢ · $35.6 million
Mostly fees that utilities pay to run their lines along public streets, and a tax insurance companies pay on the policies they sell here. Also taxes on alcohol sales and property sales. In budget year 2025: $16 million in utility franchise fees and $15 million from the insurance premium tax.
Fees, licenses and fines
6¢ · $14 million
Paid by the people who use a service or need permission: building permits, business licenses, service charges, court fines.
Everything else
5¢ · $11.2 million
State and federal money, interest the county earns on its savings, rent on county property, and penalties on late taxes.
How the two biggest taxes connect
By state law, what the two everyday sales-tax pennies (LOST and OLOST) bring in lowers the county's property-tax rate the next year. The county figures a full rate, then reduces it by the millage the two pennies' money covers. For the 2026 tax year, the county’s full rate was 22.302 mills (a mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value); the sales-tax reduction took off 12.727, leaving the 9.575 on the bill. About 57% of the county’s full rate is covered by sales tax instead.
■ 9.575 on the bill■ 12.727 covered by sales tax
The sales-tax reduction since 2021
Tax year
Full rate
Sales-tax reduction
On the bill
2026
22.302
−12.727
9.575
2025
23.782
−14.207
9.575
2024
24.141
−14.241
9.900
2023
24.448
−13.725
10.723
2022
25.545
−7.644
17.901
2021
27.561
−7.660
19.901
The reduction rose by about 80% in 2023, the first tax year after OLOST — the second everyday penny — began collecting. Mills, by tax year. The county’s advertisement calls this line the “rollback”; it is a different thing from the “rollback rate” that decides whether a rate counts as a tax increase.
Most of the everyday budget pays people: salaries and benefits come to $122.8 million, 55¢ of every dollar — $1.05 million less than in budget year 2026. Source: the 2026 and 2027 adopted ordinances
The County Attorney's budget rises $1.35 million (45%), nearly all of it — $1.29 million — in operating costs rather than staff pay. Source: the 2026 and 2027 adopted ordinances
Law enforcement, patrol, investigations, and the county jail — the single largest department.
$56.8 million → $60.1 million
County Attorney+$1.35 million
The county's lawyers — most of this is outside legal costs, not staff salaries.
$2.99 million → $4.34 million
Welfare+$741,206
County support for residents in need — paid out, not run by county staff.
$4.34 million → $5.08 million
Information Technology+$447,426
Runs the county's computers, networks, software, and cybersecurity.
$8.68 million → $9.13 million
Fire Department+$312,235
Firefighting, rescue, and emergency medical response.
$34.1 million → $34.4 million
Down the most
Industrial & Urban Development−$2.42 million
County investment in attracting jobs and development.
$8.93 million → $6.51 million
Facilities Management−$1.75 million
Maintains and operates county buildings — utilities, repairs, and upkeep.
$13.9 million → $12.1 million
Transfer to Other Funds−$883,938
Money moved from the General Fund into other county funds — not a service itself.
$9.59 million → $8.71 million
Tax Commissioner−$358,021
Collects property taxes, car tags, and other fees — the office that brings money in.
$4.84 million → $4.49 million
Parks & Beautification−$290,988
Maintains parks, green space, and keeps the county clean.
$4.68 million → $4.39 million
Both years are the budgets as adopted: 2027 adopted ordinance and 2026 adopted ordinance. A department can grow or shrink because work moved between departments, not only because of new spending.
What actually happened
The plan, next to the audited books.
A budget is a plan. After each year ends, an independent auditor checks the county’s books and publishes what really came in and went out. Here is the everyday budget for budget years 2021 through 2025. The everyday budget's reserve grew from $44.7 million at the end of budget year 2021 to $97.1 million in 2023, then fell to $61.5 million by the end of 2025.
Budget year 2025
July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025
The adopted plan was $211 million. During the year it was raised to $244 million.
Spent $244 million, counting $10.8 million moved to other county funds — 16% more than the adopted plan.
Took in $219.5 million, 4% more than expected when the budget was adopted, plus $8.67 million from other sources such as transfers from other county funds.
So its reserve (fund balance) went down $15.8 million, ending the year at $61.5 million.
What the auditors found: The auditors listed four findings: two accounting errors the county had to correct — a $200,892 restatement in the Coliseum fund and a $130,000 adjustment to the landfill-closure liability — and two federal grant reports filed late or not at all (CDBG pandemic relief, and the Airport Improvement Program). FY2025 audit, Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs, pp. 11–13
In each of these years, spending (counting transfers) came in above the adopted plan and income came in above what was expected. “Spent” counts money moved to other county funds; “took in” counts money moved in from them. Each year links to its audited report.
The adopted plan is the audited report’s “original budget,” which can differ slightly from the adopting ordinance’s total used in the year-by-year table below.
Sales-tax projects
Sales-tax projects the commission has approved.
SPLOST is the one-cent sales tax voters approve for a list of projects — roads, parks, public safety. The money is spent through contracts, and many of them come to the commission for a vote. On our record: $66.8 million across 71 contracts approved with a recorded roll call, each one traced back to the meeting where it passed. The largest single item, approved Jul 21, 2026: $28,262,438 in change orders with Barton Malow for early work on the Macon Arena project, paid from money borrowed against the 2025 SPLOST.
These are authorizations, not payments. A vote awards a contract; it doesn’t mean the money has left the account or that the final invoice matched the award. Actual outlays are reported later in the county’s annual financial report.
SPLOST 2025
$44 million in this year’s budget
Voters approved $450 million for this round on March 18, 2025. The vote was 5,236 to 1,064, per the Commission's certified-results resolution. The round lets the county borrow up to $100 million up front.
$51.8 million authorized across 19 contracts
Borrowed up front (bonds) $35.3 million (5 contracts)Roads & streets $11.6 million (8 contracts)Public safety $4.68 million (5 contracts)Parks, recreation & culture $206,580 (1 contract)
The $44 million is what this year’s budget sets aside from the fund — one year of a round that runs several. Our record of commission roll calls begins Oct 17, 2023. Not counted: 18 more items name this fund (about $44.8 million where one amount is stated) — mostly routine items the commission approves together in a single vote, with no roll call for the item itself on our record.
Voters approved $280 million for this round on November 8, 2016. Collection began April 1, 2018, and ended in 2025.
$15 million authorized across 52 contracts
Parks, recreation & culture $5.72 million (20 contracts)Public safety $3.85 million (16 contracts)Roads & streets $2.65 million (6 contracts)Not specified $2.38 million (8 contracts)Landfill $285,220 (1 contract)Courts $105,720 (1 contract)
Partial view. This round has been paying for projects since 2018, but our record of commission roll calls begins Oct 17, 2023 — contracts approved before then aren’t counted here. Not counted: 63 more items name this fund (about $19.7 million where one amount is stated) — mostly routine items the commission approves together in a single vote, with no roll call for the item itself on our record.
Both budgets and both tax rates are set in public meetings, on a schedule the law fixes. The dates for budget year 2028 have not been announced yet — here is how the year runs, with last year’s dates.
On the ballot November 3, 2026
Two local questions ask whether homeowners 65 and older should get a homestead exemption — one on the county’s property tax, one on the school district’s. They are separate questions; you vote on each. What’s on the ballot →
By May 20
County
The Mayor proposes the county budget — at least six weeks before the July 1 start of the year (county charter). A copy has to be public the day it is submitted.
Last year: presented May 19, 2026.
May – June
Schools
The school board tentatively adopts its budget, then holds at least two public meetings on it, in different weeks, before the final vote. The district says it must adopt by June 30.
Last year: tentative June 2; hearings June 17 and 25; adopted June 25, 2026.
June
County
A public hearing at least a week before the vote, then the Commission adopts the budget. It takes two-thirds of the commissioners — 6 of 9.
Last year: hearing June 2; adopted June 16, 2026.
August – September
Both
Each body sets its property-tax rate for the year. A rate above the rollback rate means three advertised public hearings first, one of them starting between 6 and 7 p.m. on a weekday.
Last year: county hearings Aug. 28 – Sept. 9; school hearings Sept. 2 and two on Sept. 9; both adopted Sept. 9, 2026.
Speak to the Commission
Regular meetings are at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday, at the Government Center, with time for public comment on agenda and non-agenda items. Sign up with the county’s request-to-speak form or by emailing commission@maconbibb.us. How to speak at a meeting →
Speak to the school board
Board meetings, including the budget hearings, carry an “Invitation to Visitors to Address the Board.” The district sets the sign-up rules — check its meeting portal or bcsdk12.net before you go. What the board has voted on →
Rules: Macon-Bibb charter § 26 (budget timing, two-thirds vote); O.C.G.A. § 36-81-5 (county budget hearing and notice); § 20-2-167.1 (two school-budget meetings; the June 30 deadline is from the district’s June 2, 2026 Budget Brief); § 48-5-32.1 (three hearings for a rate above rollback). Last year’s dates are from the county’s FY27 budget page and ordinances and the school board’s minutes.
The school district
The school district’s budget.
The Bibb County School District is a separate government, run by an elected Board of Education with its own budget and its own property-tax rate — the larger of the two rates on a Macon-Bibb tax bill. None of it is in the county budget above.
Budget year 2027
July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027
The district’s everyday budget (General Fund) plans to spend $302.4 million against $287.4 million coming in — what the district’s memo calls an operating deficit of $15 million. It projects the General Fund’s reserve (fund balance) at $33.2 million when the year ends.
Across all of its funds: $445.3 million out and $411.5 million in, with $81.4 million projected to remain in reserve.
Adopted June 25, 2026 by a 6–2 vote (Sundra Woodford and Henry Ficklin voting no), after two proposed amendments failed 2–6: one to cut the budget by $2 million, and one to restore step raises and not enlarge class sizes.
What the budget changed
Holds salaries where they are, with no yearly step raises (the raise employees earn for each year of service)
Adds 21 state-required literacy coaches for kindergarten through 3rd grade
Cuts 77 teaching positions across K–12
Cuts $1.5 million in operating costs
Absorbs a $600-per-member rise in state health insurance and a 1.87% rise in teacher retirement costs
Counts on $10.1 million more in state aid for districts with less property wealth (the equalization grant)
From the district’s memos and minutes on its board portal, checked September 28, 2026. What the school board does →
Year by year
How the everyday budget has grown.
Since budget year 2016, the adopted General Fund has gone from $147.6 million to $221.5 million — up 50%. Prices rose about 40% over the same stretch, so after inflation the budget is about 7% larger than it was.
See every year
Budget year
Adopted
Change
2027
$221.5 million
+0.8%
2026
$219.8 million
+4.6%
2025
$210.3 million
+3.1%
2024
$203.9 million
+2.9%
2023
$198.2 million
+13.9%
2022
$174 million
+8.8%
2021
$159.9 million
−2.8%
2020
$164.5 million
+0.0%
2019
$164.5 million
+9.7%
2018
$149.9 million
+4.9%
2017
$142.8 million
−3.2%
2016
$147.6 million
—
Adopted budgets, from the county’s budget books and ordinances. The table starts with budget year 2016. Prices: U.S. consumer price index (CPI-U, Bureau of Labor Statistics), budget year 2016 priced at the 2015–16 average, the latest year at August 2026 — an approximation.
