Pembroke reportedly won’t raise its millage rate in 2011, despite a decline in the city’s tax digest of nearly $1.3 million.  
“Through the two workshops that city council has held so far they do not want to raise the millage, and we will live within the revenue available,” said City Administrator Franklin Etheridge.
Pembroke’s millage rate is 8.359 and last went up in 2008. The city is expected to adopt the rate at an Aug. 23 public meeting.
But that’s just the next step in the process.
The city council is still putting together a spending plan expected to weigh in at about $1.5 million by the time it’s adopted.
By contrast, the city’s current budget is $1.6 million. Pembroke’s fiscal year is the same as a calendar year.
The city’s tax digest reflects similar losses in Bryan County as a whole. In Pembroke, real and personal property dropped from $43.29 million in 2009 to $42.4 million in 2010. Motor vehicles fell from $4.9 million in 2009 to $4.2 million this year, and taxes on mobile homes dropped from $505,424 to $485,661.
The city expects to make up some of the shortfall by adding a $1 fee to garbage pickup services.