Wendy Parker

Patricia Benedict brought her property tax bill and a good bit of pent-up frustration to a Cobb budget town hall meeting Monday night at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

As she listened to Commission Chairman Mike Boyce lay out his fiscal year 2020 budget priorities that do not call for a millage increase, she grew even more animated by what she was hearing.

While supportive of additional funding for many of the services Boyce was touting—public safety in particular—she finally stood up, took a microphone and told him that her tax bill has gone up 41 percent in the last three years.

“It’s not sustainable,” said Benedict, who bought her home with her husband in the Barnes Mill Road area in 2014. “You should be having a millage decrease. I want services, but I can’t afford this. When property values go up, the millage should go down.”

Benedict said after the meeting that she estimates around 75 percent of her tax bill is for schools. She has written elected officials, including new Cobb school board member Charisse Davis, who represents part of East Cobb.

She said the school part of her tax bill has gone up by even more, 53 percent in the last three years, although the Cobb schools millage rate hasn’t gone up since 2007.

“I am concerned the school board is not controlling costs and is going to tax me out of my home,” Benedict wrote to Davis. “Please explain to me why the school board is not decreasing the millage rate in a period of rising home prices?

(Davis wrote in response that she doesn’t favor reducing the millage rate, saying 92 percent of Cobb educational costs are personnel-related and that the district is having to fund more and more expenses that are typically covered by the state. “We still have not been able to replace the number of teachers we had before the 2008 recession. We also have the lowest administrative costs among the larger Atlanta-metro school districts,” Davis said.

Boyce explained to Benedict during the town hall that homes are taxed at 40 percent of their assessed value, with another 10 percent reduction for a permanent homestead exemption for the county’s general fund. The only school tax exemption in Cobb is for homeowners 62 and older.

“Your concern is a legitimate one,” he said to Benedict, who rattled off some things she’s doing without to save money. “Who here has less expenses than last year?”

2020 priorities

A few dozen people turned out for Monday’s town hall, which also covered upcoming transportation and transit initiatives (we’ll detail those in a future post).

Last July, Boyce got a 1.7 mills increase for $454 million in county general fund spending by a narrow 3-2 vote in what he called a “restoration” budget, after claiming Cobb government was facing a $30 million deficit.

The additional revenue is being used to hire police officers and extend public library hours, among other features.

For FY 2020, Boyce wants to hire more police officers, further extend Sunday library hours and give all county employees a three percent cost-of-living-raise, something they haven’t had in five years, keeping an 8.46 general fund millage rate.

Costs are also going up for pension and health care obligations for county employees, and he’s proposing to reduce revenues transferred from the Cobb water system by $2.8 million.

He hasn’t submitted a formal budget proposal yet, but is conducting town hall meetings around the county this month (see bottom of this post for the schedule).

Even with a record Cobb tax digest of 36.7 billion in 2018, and a bigger one projected for this year, Boyce said the cost of services continues to rise as the county grows.

He said around 10,000 new residents typically move into Cobb every year, and while they contribute additional tax revenues, “they do not offset the greater costs of services.”

Benedict responded: “Then keep those libraries closed on Sunday.”

Boyce replied that many citizens, especially in East Cobb, were vocal about not only keeping libraries open, but having them open longer. The Sewell Mill branch has longer Saturday hours, and the Mountain View Regional Library is open on Sunday afternoons.

“Last year people came out because they wanted to keep their amenities,” he said.

Public safety concerns

This year, Boyce and some citizens at the town hall meeting expressed grave concerns about public safety staffing.

Susan Hampton, a community civic leader who organizes the East Cobb Business Association’s annual public safety appreciation dinners, said “the crisis is already here.”

Before the meeting a flyer was handed out with her name and the Cobb Fraternal Order of Police chapter listed as contacts. It detailed retention issues with seasoned officers, less-than-ideal salaries and benefits, older patrol cars, police officers not having sufficient backup on calls and a shortage of sheriff’s deputies at the Cobb jail. According to the flyer:

“We have the same number of uniform officers on duty today as we did 20 years ago. We have 167,000 more citizens in Cobb today than we did in 1999. Calls are increasing 4% to 5% every year, yet we are expecting the same number of officers from 20 years ago to keep our county safe!”

Similar sentiments have been expressed at recent commission meetings by Cobb FOP. Last year, Cobb hired 48 police officers, but lost 72 others. Already this year, nine officers have departed or are in the process of leaving.

“We are on fire,” Hampton said. “But it’s not on your mind because you don’t know about it.”

“We’re not where we need to be with public safety,” Boyce said, adding that hiring of officers will be gradual, given a six-month training period at the start for each new hire.

He acknowledged that the loss of mid-rank, mid-career officers and other law enforcement personnel is serious.

“We know about it, but it’s going to take some time to fix it.”

The remainder of Boyce’s town hall schedule this month is as follows, with sessions at 3 and 7 p.m. each day:

• Thursday, March 7 – Cobb Senior Services, Marietta
• Monday, March 11 – Freeman Poole Senior Center, Smyrna
• Wednesday, March 13 – South Cobb Community Center
• Thursday, March 14 – North Cobb Senior Center
• Tuesday, March 19 – West Cobb Senior Center

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