Chatham Area Transit asks county to raise property taxes amid budget shortfall

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Chatham Area Transit is asking county commissioners to increase property taxes to help address an $8.4 million budget shortfall.

The request came during a four-hour meeting Wednesday, the first public meeting between the two groups since the county sent a letter in November with intent to cut funding in June.

Tensions rose during the meeting when CAT board chairman Detric Leggett and County Commission board chairman Chester Ellis clashed.

“We came here to be transparent and give you facts,” Leggett said.

“Let me start talking to Miss Cutter,” Ellis said.

“Please sir,” Leggett said.

“No I’m not gonna wait,” Ellis said.

“But don’t disrespect my CEO, you will respect the agency as a whole,” Leggett said.

Leggett later added: “You ask us to be transparent but you will not disrespect people around the table if we’re going to have a conversation.”

Millage rate increase request met with confusion

CAT’s request to raise the millage rate for extra funds was met with confusion over why CEO Stephanie Cutter came to commissioners to fund programs that are not supposed to be funded by county taxes.

“There’s no way on this earth I could vote to fund that when we were sold a bowl of goods way back when that we wouldn’t be paying for it,” said Dean Kicklighter, Chatham District 7 commissioner.

Cutter said that many issues existed before her administration, and the millage rate change will undo some damage.

“I have to worry about trying to fix the issues, and that’s what the staff and I are doing, some are on board, some are not,” Cutter said.

One example is the ferry service, which was initially created with county dollars but was intended to be fully funded by outside groups later on, including the city of Savannah and its World Trade Center.

“They should be purchasing the dot shuttles, not the overall county,” Kicklighter said. “We can work a lot of your financial issues out and it not be just on this body.”

The two groups agreed that open communication gives each board perspective on the other’s situation.

The county said it still intends to pull its paratransit funding on June 30 and is looking at funding another transit organization.