The details of the fiscal year 2019 Cobb budget proposal will be made at a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session on Monday, with a final town hall meeting Monday night in East Cobb.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce has taken the outlines of his proposed $453 million budget around the county to the public in the last month. Monday’s work session starts at 1:30 p.m., followed by his final town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
The county has produced an interactive, Cobb’s Budget Journey, to detail the deficit, as well as spending and tax rate history over nearly three decades.
Boyce is proposing a general fund property tax increase of 1.7 mills, which would cover the $30 million gap.
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Critics of the tax increase held a town hall meeting of their own Friday, and they included East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher, who put together a scathing critique of Boyce’s budget. Click here for the PDF: Town Hall Presentation -Revised.
Entitled “Truth or Fiction,” the PDF points out that Boyce hasn’t proposed any spending cuts and denounces what it calls the “homestead exemption blame game.”
It also suggests some “hard choices” that include cutting the 5-10 percent of low-performing county employees, outsource fleet management, human resources and the county attorney’s office and increase employee health care and pension contributions.
“We don’t have a revenue problem! We have a spending problem,” declares the presentation. “No more taxes until you cut spending.”
On Tuesday, commissioners will hold the first of three required public hearings on the budget, at 9 a.m. in their chambers on the 2nd floor of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
The other public hearings are scheduled on July 17 at 6:30 p.m., and on July 25 at 7 p.m., in the same location. Commissioners are set to adopt the budget on July 25.
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