East Cobb Cityhood bill gets final passage in Ga. legislature

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East Cobb City Council district map
For a larger view of the proposed East Cobb city council districts, click here.

The Georgia House on Monday adopted Senate substitute legislation to call for a referendum for a proposed City of East Cobb.

HB 841 (you can read it here) was approved by a 96-62 vote in the lower chamber without debate, and will be sent to Gov. Brian Kemp to be signed into law.

It would establish a May 24 referendum for voters in the proposed city to decide whether or not to incorporate.

A second vote in the full House was needed after the Senate passed a substitute bill on Thursday that included clarifying language about proposed city council districts.

The six city council members will be chosen citywide, but they will have to live in the district they seek to represent (see map).

The House version of that bill did not indicate that.

The bill is the first of four Cityhood bills in Cobb County that has passed the legislature.

Last week, Cobb County government published a Cityhood Resource Page that angered members of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.

The county is spending more than $40,000 for lobbyists to oppose the cityhood bills.

Cobb officials estimate the impact to the county budget would be more than $45 million a year if all four proposed cities—East Cobb, Vinings, Lost Mountain and Mableton—would come into being.

The financial estimates contend that nearly half of those revenues would come from a City of East Cobb of around 60,000 residents along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.

The county also has protested moving up the referendums in each of the four Cobb cities from November to May, saying it would put an additional burden on Cobb Elections for the general primary.

But the East Cobb Cityhood group questions the county’s financials and objected to taxpayer money being spent to fight the bills.

The Vinings and Lost Mountain bills have passed the House and are headed for the Senate; the Mableton bill is being heard by a House committee.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding a special work session Tuesday at 6 p.m. to cover cityhood issues, including potential impact on county finances and services.

It’s a virtual-only event and can be viewed on the county’s YouTube channel.

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2 thoughts on “East Cobb Cityhood bill gets final passage in Ga. legislature”

    • I don’t support the city and don’t think it will pass, but I also don’t understand this entitled mentality that people outside of the proposed city should get a chance to essentially vote to keep other people’s tax money.

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