Cobb commissioners are scheduled to adopt the fiscal year 2025 budget for Cobb County government as well as the 2024 millage rate on Tuesday.
The budget proposal that was presented earlier this month calls for $1.27 billion in spending, $41.3 million increase in the general fund from the current fiscal year 2024 budget, and holding the line on the general fund millage rate at 8.46 mills.
That constitutes a tax increase under state law, since there is no proposed “rollback” millage rate to match current spending levels.
Commissioners have held two of three required public hearings on the budget, with the final hearing set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the board room of the county office building at 100 Cherokee St., Marietta.
The property tax revenues in the proposed budget are a 9 percent increase from fiscal year 2024.
A number of citizens have asked commissioners to reduce the millage rate due to rising property tax assessments.
On Wednesday during a special-called public hearing on the budget, they held up graphics showing how the costs of daily living have gone up for citizens.
“Lower the millage, otherwise it is a nine percent increase,” said East Cobb resident Jan Barton.
“The only thing down is weekly average earnings. Your decisions are putting people out of their homes.”
Maria Cooper, who said she’s on a fixed income, rattled off household costs that have gone up for her and asked for the millage rate to be rolled back. “I don’t want to be pushed out of Cobb County,” she said.
The overall proposed budget includes $63.7 million in new spending, with an additional $14.7 million for the fire fund, with a proposed millage rate to remain the same at 2.99 mills.
Only five new positions would be created in the FY 2025 budget, whittled down from 382 requests for new jobs from department heads.
Also in the proposed budget is a reduction in the amount of Cobb Water System revenues to the general fund, from six percent to five percent.
The Cobb finance department has created a presentation (click here ) breaking down how property taxes are divided, what general fund revenues pay for, and “how the county will spend this year’s budget growth.”
During the Wednesday hearings, resident Sue Marshall held up a copy of the budget brochure and said the county could have done a better job of informing the public of the meeting.
A Cobb resident since 1977, she said previous commissions held town halls and actively asked for public feedback.
“But you’re not doing that,” she said. “You want to raise taxes and keep up with the Joneses and be more like DeKalb and the city of Atlanta.”
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid responded to some of the commenters.
“It’s very difficult for all of us, for my family, to know how much we’re paying,” she said. “A lot of this is being driven by fair-market [home] values. We are not building houses to the rate of demand.”
Cupid said commissioners have a duty to be stewards in maintaining basic county operations. Two-thirds of the additional revenues for FY 2025 will be paying for public safety salaries and benefits.
“You said we should value public safety and we do,” she said. “If this budget does not pass we won’t be able to sustain the raises that we’ve recently provided for those who are sworn officers.”
More budget information can be found by clicking here.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s meeting can be found by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Related:
- Cobb revokes health spa license for Canton Road business
- Cobb Water System probing Lake Allatoona wastewater spills
- Proposed Cobb FY 2025 budget raises property taxes
- Cobb approves $7M Lower Roswell Road project
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Our Chairwoman is incompetent and must be voted out of office in November, but we better have plenty of poll watchers. The Democratic majority must be done away or this spending will just go on and on and people will continue to get hurt by our own local government. I suspect corruption. I have lived in Cobb County since 1989 and never dreamed it would end up like this with all of the wasteful spending and arrogant attitude from the Chair. It is true what they say happens when liberals gain control. Spend, tax, spend! It is a disgrace and is against everything this county has always stood for. A real shame.
Nope. The current commission are dealing with prior years’ lack of accountability and lack of investment into infrastructure, not to mention even higher demands from police, firefighters and parents for additional school resources. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. This is not a dem vs rep issue, this is a lack of understanding on what citizens want versus what can be readily paid for. If you want crumbling infrasturucture, less police presence and lower school standards, then by all means cut.
Infrastructure? That’s a cute talking point Mikey, but 99% of “infrastructure” appropriations trickle down from the federal and state budgets. The county government isn’t funding the replacement of bridges or whatever “crumbling infrastructure” you are eluding to.
The county is funding the necessities such as high school football stadiums, artificial turf, convocation centers, etc.
The Cobb County Commission does not fund schools and has nothing to do with school standards.
Rising tax assessments are driving our taxes up and up. Next year, our property taxes will go up another 9 percent on top of past increases. No one is suggesting tax cuts only reductions in the milage rate to slow down the tax increases.
The play book is always the same. The commission spends money like crazy but it you want to reduce the milage rate, you want to cut police and “infrastructure”. I long for the days when Cobb County was a model for a well run, fiscally responsible county government.
2024 property tax bills should be the SAME as 2023 tax bills – unless the property is reassessed in 2024.
Because 2024 Millage Rates = 2023 Millage Rates.
Cobb has lower Millage Rates than most area counties.
62% of the budget increase is for public safety – to address the almost 200 vacancies in the Cobb Police and Fire Departments and for overtime pay.
Most area PDs and FDs are experiencing staffing shortages. So they’re all competing with each other for Police and Firefighters.
People complain about no visible law enforcement. Yet when they increase the budget to increase PD staffing, people complain about that, also.
We can’t have it both ways.
What is the status of the new police precinct near Sandy Plains, Gordy Parkway, and Shallowford? The building was completed over two years ago and nobody has moved in.
So far it looks like a lot of foolish spending.
Could the same people that told us the new housing area at Piedmont and Sandy Plains will not impact traffic or, the new traffic intersection at Canton Highway and Shallowford is completely safe be the same people that are over the budget? If so we might as well merge with the city of Atlanta and let them help spend our money.
My initial concern was, we built a new Police Precinct for a million dollars or so, but it has set empty for a couple of years while they look for another million dollars to complete the precinct.
It reminds me of what Jesus said in Luke 14:28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
That seems to explain our situation to a T.