Cobb commissioners adopt FY 2024 budget with no millage cuts

Cobb’s two Republican commissioners wanted to reduce the general fund millage rate Tuesday before adopting the fiscal year 2024 county budget, but couldn’t get their Democratic colleagues to agree.

Even after more than two dozen citizens pleaded for a cut in the wake of rising property assessments, commissioners voted along party lines to preserve the 8.46 general fund millage rate.

The vote to set the millage rate was 3-2, with the Democrats voting in favor and the Republicans against.

That came after a substitute motion by Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill to roll back the general fund millage rate to 7.168, which would match current FY 2023 revenues.

That motion failed, with Gambrill and fellow Republican JoAnn Birrell voting in favor, and the Democrats opposed.

The vote to adopt the $1.2 billion spending plan, which takes effect on Oct. 1, went along the same 3-2 split.

“I can’t support this budget,” said Birrell, who at a town hall meeting last week said she was working to find a way to cut the general fund rate.

But during a nearly three-hour discussion on the budget Tuesday, she didn’t offer a proposal, saying she couldn’t generate any support from commissioners.

That apparently included Gambrill, whose motion to cut the general fund rate even further took Birrell by surprise.

The difference between the 7.168 and 8.46 mills is 18 percent, according to Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann, and that represents a dollar difference of $54.4 million.

The millage rate action also moved the Cobb fire fund up slightly to 2.99 mills; the rollback rate for that is 2.64 mills.

Residents from around the county spoke during the final public hearing on the millage rate and budget to say that much higher tax bills they’ll pay in October compound their struggles to pay for rising costs for housing, food and utilities.

Some said they or people they know may be priced out of their homes.

Since she moved into her current East Cobb home four years ago, Robin Moody told commissioners her tax bill has gone from $1,900 to $3.500.

“On behalf of Cobb County, we can’t afford this right now,” she said.

Others said that renters will be hurt because their property owners can’t claim homestead exemptions.

A few spoke on behalf of the proposed budget, including Jackie Bettadapur of East Cobb, the former Cobb Democratic Party chairwoman, who asked that the millage rate not be lowered.

She said that Cobb homeowners have been “insulated” with a floating homestead exemption and an exemption from school taxes for homeowners 62 and over, and that the demand for county services is growing, and getting more expensive.

“None of this is free and all of this is subject to inflationary pressures,” she said.

The new budget includes $19 million more in spending than the current FY 2023 budget.

Birrell repeated concerns she expressed at the town hall, saying that while she supports some of the additional spending—especially for public safety salaries and benefits—”these things have to be sustainable.”

She was against the creation of 34 new jobs across county government, and said that her proposed 0.21 mills reduction would take out $8.1 million in spending.

“It’s not much but it’s something,” she said, adding that the only way to stop “overspending” is to roll back millage rate to 7.168.

“Cobb has always been a county that other counties look up to,” Birrell said. “But we’re going in a downward spiral that needs to stop.”

But Democratic commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb said the county has an obligation “as the Good Book tells us” to help and share with others, especially those in need.

She also reminded citizens that for most of them, their school taxes represent the biggest portions of their tax bills—in some cases more than 60 percent—and noted that some of those complaining to the county don’t go to school board meetings.

Last week the Cobb Board of Education lowered its millage rate by 0.2 mills but also adopted a $1.4 billion FY 2024 budget that is higher than last year.

“I urge you to be more vocal at the school board meetings because that’s where the majority of your tax increase is coming from,” Sheffield said.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said the county simply can’t curtail the millage rate because of growing obligations for services, and said that would have “drastic repercussions” because the county staffing levels haven’t fully recovered from recession years.

She referenced a 2016 rollback pushed through by then-Chairman Tim Lee and supported by Birrell that resulted in a $30 million budget deficit.

His successor, Republican Mike Boyce, got a millage rate increase passed in 2018 that Cupid support but Birrell opposed.

“What we’d be essentially doing is going back and not doing what our citizens expect of us,” Cupid said of a rollback.

“This is not easy for anyone, but if we don’t make decisions today we will have even more dire decisions to make tomorrow.”

Commissioners also voted 5-0 to ratify the school board’s millage rate adoption, as it is required to do so by law. When asked if commissioners had any discretion to do otherwise, County Attorney Bill Rowling said such an action would likely lead to litigation.

Related:

• Cobb school board adopts millage rate as Banks abstains
• At fiery town hall, Birrell pledges effort to cut millage rate
• Cobb citizens plead for property tax relief
• Proposed FY 2024 Cobb budget has no tax rate cut
• Cobb school board adopts FY 2024 budget; Banks votes present