Cobb commissioners approve fiscal year 2022 budget

Lisa Cupid, Cobb adopts fiscal year 2022 budget — *“Nothing in the budget I see is frivolous,” Cobb commission chairwoman Lisa Cupid said.*

By a unanimous 4-0 vote, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a fiscal year 2022 operating budget of $496.6 million that includes pay raises for county employees and continues implementing a tiered salary increase plan for public safety personnel.

The board kept the general-fund millage rate at 8.46 mills, but technically the spending package constitutes a property tax increase under state law.

That’s because the adopted budget is an increase of nearly 5 percent from the adopted fiscal year 2021 budget of $473.8 million.

The county tax digest is expected to grow about 5.5 percent in 2021, and commissioners did not rollback the millage rate to offset that additional revenue.

Because of state law, the county had to advertise the budget proposal as a tax increase and conduct public hearings, and some citizens spoke out against that.

The budget includes a 3-percent merit increase for county employees, replenishes capital maintenance budgets and creates an officer for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Other additional spending will go for increased costs for county court operations and the county elections offices.

Budget documents and information can be found here.

In making remarks before the vote, the four present commissioners all said that the budget before them provides only basic services, contains no luxuries.

“I don’t want to see my taxes increased either,” chairwoman Lisa Cupid said. “But nothing in the budget I see is frivolous.”

She said county cannot continue “to fall behind on the basic things.”

County employees have not frequently seen raises in recent years, and the turnover and attrition due to them leaving results in “reduced quality of services” for citizens, she said.

Cupid said as for capital maintenance, “there are many years we did not do that” and that now the county is restoring that funding “to where it should have been” some years before.

Last year, with uncertainty over the financial impact of COVID-19 closures, commissioners approved $2.1 million in capital maintenance. This year, that figure will be $10.2 million, a boost of 377 percent.

She also defended the creation of a cabinet-level diversity officer, which was stipulated in the FY 2021 budget but wasn’t funded.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the Northeast Cobb area, said she was in support of the budget because of the increasing commitment to implementing a step-and-grade salary program for public safety employees.

She also said the 3-percent raise for other county employees is “well-deserved.”

The budget does not include a decrease in the percentage of water system revenues to the general-fund budget, as commissioners had pledged two years ago.

Until then, the county took 10 percent of water system revenues to help fund the operating budget. Commissioners embarked on a plan to reduce that by one percent a year, or about $2.4 million annually.

That figure is now at 8 percent, and while Birrell said she’s disappointed that figure will be holding this year, the extra money is needed for step-and-grade and other purposes.

“I support the budget,” Birrell said.

Commissioner Jerica Richardson, who represents part of East Cobb, echoed some of Birrell’s sentiments, and before casting her first budget vote said “this budget is not a fix” for continuing service issues for county government.

“It’s a bare minimum, frankly,” she said.

Cupid who was a South Cobb commissioner for eight years before being elected chairwoman in November, said that “this is not a perfect budget,” but she applauded her colleagues for being willing to address issues she said have been ignored in the past.

She is leading a Democratic-majority government that includes Richardson, who succeeded Republican former commissioner Bob Ott in January.

Commissioner Keli Gambrill of North Cobb, who with Birrell forms the Republican minority on the board, was absent from the meeting.

The FY 2022 budget goes into effect on Oct. 1.