Cobb tax increase, $454 million budget approved for FY 2019 in close vote

After more than three hours of public speakers and comments from commissioners, a Cobb tax increase was approved Wednesday night.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a property tax hike of 1.7 mills and a fiscal year budget of $454 million for the general fund.

Chairman Mike Boyce, who said he was staking his political future on the outcome, got everything he wanted.

In addition to getting the vote of South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, the only Democrat on the five-member board, he also got the vote of Republican Bob Weatherford, who as it turned out may have sacrificed his political future in the process.

Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell, who represent East Cobb in Districts 2 and 3, respectively, voted against the budget and the millage rate increase.

While Ott said he wouldn’t support an increase without spending cuts that weren’t presented, Birrell said she would have been in favor of a hike of 1.2 or 1.3 mills but nothing more.

Weatherford, defeated in his re-election bid Tuesday night in a Republican runoff in North Cobb’s District 1 by an anti-tax increase opponent, proved to be the swing vote.

He said after reflecting on his big loss (59-41 percent to Keli Gambrill) that he naturally wondered what had gone wrong.

“It’s what I did right that people didn’t like,” said Weatherford, who will have served only one term. “I made the hard choices and did what I said I would do.”

He said that he’s been threatened and even challenged to a fistfight for his calls for a lesser tax increase than what passed.

“The only thing I’m running for now is the hills, but I do not want to leave the county worse than than when I got here,” he said.

“So I completely support this.”

With that, loud applause broke out in the commissioners’ meeting chambers.

Related stories

• Cobb GOP opposes tax increase
• Commissioners to citizens on budget: ‘We hear you’
• Town halls conclude as public hearings begin
• 2018 Cobb tax digest a record $36.7 billion
• Boyce takes case for tax increase to the public
• Revised Cobb budget keeps parks, libraries open
• No clear direction after Cobb budget retreat
• The scapegoats of the Cobb budget crisis

But plenty of citizens spoke against a tax increase, saying the county had a spending problem and wasn’t looking for efficiencies.

The 1.7 mills would push the general fund rate to 8.46 mills, generate around $47 million in additional revenue, and go beyond solving what Boyce has said is a projected $30 million deficit for FY 2019. The extra funds include $15 million more for public safety and the restoration of some Sunday library hours.

East Cobb residents Debbie Fisher and Jan Barton, vigorously opposed to a tax hike, continued to dispute the severity of the deficit.

Pamela Reardon, an East Cobb realtor and 1st vice chair of the Cobb Republican Party, which passed a resolution Tuesday against a tax increase, said the county must “learn to live within its means,” especially with a record county tax digest in 2018.

Another East Cobb resident, retiree Frank Maleski, recited a long list of taxes he pays and said “I can’t afford to pay for any more government.”

Other East Cobb residents were adamant in support of a tax hike.

One of them is attorney Lance LoRusso, who represents Cobb public safety personnel. The budget will fund 23 more police officer positions as well as vehicles and body cameras.

He worried that failing to provide resources to police officers and sheriff’s deputies would prompt existing personnel to look elsewhere for better opportunities.

Another is JoEllen Smith, who ran as Republican for a legislative seat in East Cobb in 2013. She said she estimated her tax bill would go up by around $200 a year, or $16 a month. The weekly boost of around $4, she told commissioners, amounted to a cup of coffee.

“I’d give up a Starbucks so police can have whatever the hell they want,” said Smith, who apologized for her language.

In lengthy prepared remarks, Ott outlined many reasons for voting for any tax increase at all, including the fact that many of the services that were listed as possible cost savings—including parks, libraries and the Cobb animal services program—were not included in Boyce’s budget.

He likened this budget to the 2016 Cobb government SPLOST, which he said had a lot of “wants” but not much in the way of “needs.”

He also advocated that the county consider a regional library concept to consolidate branches that are little-used.

While “nothing on my list is absolute,” Ott said the county has to grapple with growing concerns like employee pensions and pay increases, especially when “the tax digest is the highest it’s ever been.”

Boyce, a Republican from East Cobb who’s been vilified in the Marietta paper in the days leading up to the vote, said “I didn’t have to do the town halls. But I believe in the people in this county. This is how I govern. I talk to you. I want you to tell us what’s on your mind.”

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