The Bowdon City Council voted unanimously to keep the city’s millage rate at the same level as last year, although property owners still are likely to see an increase in their tax bill.

Although the city’s millage rate will stay at 8.66 mills, City Manager Jimmy Meigs said homeowners could see an average of $74 per household increase in their bills because the state has eliminated the homestead tax relief grants that cities and counties had grown accustomed to receiving over the past several years.

According to the Carroll County Georgia Board of Tax Assessors, the state’s 2008 millage rate was .25 mills and the Carroll County Schools rate was 18.10 mills, which brought the total millage rate for Bowdon to 35.51, which was the highest rate of any city in the county.

The city of Whitesburg followed with the second highest millage rate of 35.10.

The council also approved by a vote of 2-1, with Councilwoman Betty Smith absent from the meeting Monday, to increase the returned check fee charged by the city for checks presented with insufficient funds to pay for city services.

Councilman Ray Garrett, who opposed the vote, said he believed the increased fee to $35 — coupled with the customer’s bank fee that is typically $35 — would further hurt the financially strapped residents served by the city.

“If the bank charges $35 and we’re going to charge $35, then that is $70 of a day’s work,” Garrett said. “I’m not for it myself, because we are making it worse on the poor people. A lot of poor people are on fixed incomes and not making much.”

Councilman Wes McEntyre said he agreed that paying the returned check fee can be difficult but said the fee serves as a deterrent to prevent people from writing checks when they do not have the funds available in their accounts to cover the amount.

City officials said many of the checks that had been returned due to insufficient funds to pay for water and utilities were being written by the same individuals. Officials said the city had been requiring customers whose payments were frequently returned for insufficient funds to pay in cash only. Some customers had tried to maneuver around the requirement by paying with a check in the city’s deposit drop box located outside of City Hall, which possibly resulted in another returned check by the same customer.

Mayor Jim Watts suggested the city stop allowing those customers with frequent returned checks to pay the city with a check at all — including if they use a check in the deposit box — and require a cash-only payment.

Also at Monday’s meeting:

• Council approved a $19,000 contract with Gresham Smith and Partners to review film footage of the city’s sewer system to locate weaknesses in the system.

Meigs said the company is expected to start work to review the footage in as early as two weeks.