LIVE OAK — Despite dissent from one council member and one resident, the Live Oak City Council approved raising the millage rate and budget at Tuesday night’s final budget hearing.

The city’s millage rate was set at 9.1771, the rolled back rate that will provide the same amount of tax revenue as the previous year’s rate.

Currently, the city’s millage rate is 8.9132.

Much like he was at the tentative hearing, Councilman Mark Stewart opposed the increase.

The council, though, still approved the new rate by a 4-1 vote.

Stewart also opposed the city’s new budget of $28.3 million, an increase of around $3 million from the current year’s budget.

“I understand why, I just don’t agree with the timing,” he said. “Again, I’m opposed to it.”

Erika Williams, a city resident, also objected to the larger budget. While stating she was for city employees getting raises, she said she wasn’t sure the timing was right for additional raises just on year after the council approved a 3 percent raise with the opportunity to earn 3 percent more through a performance evaluation process.

“Personally, and as a concerned citizen, I look at many people that are on fixed incomes and they are already having strains with the utilities that they have to pay out, I think that it is too soon to increase the budget,” Williams said.

Councilman Bennie Thomas said while nobody wants to raise taxes, sometimes it is necessary.

“I had four ladies call me last week that they washed a load of clothes and came out nothing but rust,” he said, adding many residents in his district have issues with old water lines that need replacing.

“It’s not that we just want to increase utilities, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to satisfy your customers. To redo all the water lines in my district that need to be done, it’s going to cost.”

David Burch, the councilman for District 3, agreed.

Burch said when he returned to the council in 2016, it was frightening to see just how bad of shape the city’s finances were in. Through utility rate increases and raises in the millage rate, the city has helped alleviate some of those issues.

“We have to keep our heads above water,” Burch said. “We don’t know when a storm is going to come and if a storm comes and we don’t have anything to fall back on, there are municipalities that file bankruptcy. We don’t want to be one of those. We want to be prudent with our money.

“That scared me to death when I came back on the board and we had less than $100,000 in the general fund. And if something happens, we’re in trouble.”

Thomas added: “You’ve got to prepare for war in the time of peace. You don’t wait for war to break out to try and prepare for it. You have to be ready for it when it comes.”

The budget was approved by a 4-1 vote with Stewart again casting the dissenting vote.