Before any of the estimated 200 people could take their seats at the East Cobb Senior Center Wednesday for a town hall meeting devoted to a proposed property tax millage rate increase, they were handed a poster and an information sheet in strident opposition to what they were about to hear.
East Cobb realtors were giving out pink signs saying “No New Tax,” followed by a flyer from the Georgia Taxpayers United organization, urging homeowners sign a petition demanding Cobb commissioners “cut wasteful spending and lower taxes” when the 2017 millage rate is set next week.
Inside an overcrowded meeting room, commission chairman Mike Boyce was expecting residents to deliver some heat about his proposed millage hike of 0.13 mills to fully fund the remaining $13 million of a $40 million parks referendum approved by Cobb voters in 2008.
He got plenty of heat and pointed questions about the budget, county government spending, millage rates, the Atlanta Braves stadium deal with Cobb and more. Yet Boyce stood firm on his pledge to raise the millage rate—as he kept repeating, for the parks bond only—and wasn’t afraid to tangle with citizens in a feisty, and at times testy, meeting.
“I’m not going back on my word,” Boyce said, reminding those in attendance he made a campaign promise last year to fully fund the 2008 parks bond, which was never issued due to the recession. It wasn’t the central plank in his upset victory over then-chairman Tim Lee—how the Braves deal was handled was—but the parks funding its what’s gotten Boyce into some hot water seven months after taking office.
“It you’re asking me to change that position, I’m not going to.”
At the second of four town hall meetings he’s scheduled around the county, Boyce reiterated several times that the 2017-18 Cobb budget of nearly $900 million is what he inherited, the result of decisions that were made before he joined the board. That included passage of a millage rollback on the day of the Republican runoff that Boyce won handily over Lee.
Boyce is proposing a Cobb government millage rate from 9.85 to 9.98 mills for property taxes, an average increase of $13 on a home assessed at $250,000.
“I have to pay for what your commissioners passed last year,” Boyce said. “It’s a bill that’s come due.”
He appears to have enough votes to pass the millage increase. In attendance Wednesday were East Cobb commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell, who have expressed opposition to the hike.
An East Cobb resident and retired Marine colonel, Boyce said he’s come to realize that “you didn’t vote for me, you voted against another person.”
The suggestion that Boyce is holding the bag for what Lee left behind garnered only a bit of sympathy from the audience. Especially with the Cobb tax digest at an all-time high, just surpassing $33 billion.
The first speaker said he knew where he would cut the budget—“I’ll take the $14-$20 million the Braves are taking”—and was cheered with wild applause. That was a reference to a $14 million sum Cobb agreed to pay the Braves at the baseball organization’s demand for infrastructure improvements near SunTrust Park, only a month before the opening day game in April.
Boyce nodded a bit, but said the county is committed to its 30-year stadium agreement with the Braves. He mentioned an unpublished newspaper op-ed he wrote in 2013 in which he urged Cobb take leaders some time to review the contract, but to no avail.
“Now we’re paying the price for having rushed into it,” he said.
A small business owner, Bill King, rose to argue that Cobb’s government “mentality” hasn’t changed: “Why can’t we run this like a business instead of a bureaucracy?”
“Because it’s a government,” Boyce replied, to several jeers.
He said the 2018 Cobb tax digest is projected to go up 4.5 percent in 2018, but much of that is likely to be offset by spending needs that have been delayed since the recession. In particular, he referred to replacing police cars, some with more than 250,000 miles.
Several attendees were wearing green shirts handed out by the low-tax organization Americans for Prosperity, including a speaker who read from a prepared statement and concluded: “The citizens of Cobb County have been taxed enough!”
She also generated some hearty cheers, but Boyce did have his defenders.
One said Boyce was a “ray of sunshine,” and applauded his transparency to hold the town hall meetings and explain his reasons for the tax increase. He also asked his fellow citizens to appreciate that in this current budget year, what’s needed is to catch up from the recession.
Like the Braves, the citizen suggested, “let’s play for next year.”
Boyce, who seemed to enjoy the give-and-take, said, “I value this. It comes with the territory.
“I don’t lose sleep at night, but I’m well aware of what the challenges are.”
