East Cobb News

What was designed to be an open house for Cobb homeowners to sort through assessments and tax bills one-on-one with county officials turned into a contentious town hall over a scheduled vote next Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners about whether to lower the millage rate on property taxes.

Many of those in attendance Wednesday at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center in East Cobb took aim at the event’s host, District 3 Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell.

For nearly two hours, she and other county officials took questions—and plenty of broadsides—from residents livid at the proposed fiscal year 2024 Cobb government budget of nearly $1.2 billion that holds the line on the general fund millage rate but that has $53 more in revenues.

Under state law, that constitutes a tax increase, and the county has had to hold three public hearings. The final comes Tuesday, before the budget and millage rate are adopted.

At Wednesday’s event, East Cobb resident Jan Barton, a frequent critic of county government spending and a commenter at public meetings, asked Birrell if she planned on voting to reduce the tax rate.

“I’m working on it,” said Birrell, prompting a number of groans. “I’m one vote in five.”

Birrell said she’s continuing to meet with county officials about finding areas to cut spending—she doesn’t support funding any new positions, for example—but said “something can be worked out.”

She didn’t specify how much of a cut she might propose and where she might find a third, and decisive vote.

(The Cobb Board of Education passed its fiscal year 2024 budget of $1.4 billion based on a 0.2 millage rate reduction, which it is poised to adopt on Thursday, but there are calls for a larger millage rate cut.)

Birrell is one of two Republicans on the commission. Her GOP colleague, Keli Gambrill, also has said she wants to cut the general fund millage rate, which funds most county government operations.

Citizens at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center asked why the county can’t tighten its belt, since they’re having to.

“We don’t need larger government,” said a 91-year-old man, who added that “I have never seen anything as bad as the crap we’ve got right now.”

Others shouted at, interrupted and openly confronted county officials, including County Manager Jackie McMorris during a two-hour meeting that at times descended into chaos.

There were complaints about the taxpayers’ cost of funding Truist Park and the Cobb special local-option sales tax (SPLOST) that funds maintenance and construction costs unrelated to the operating budget.

When Birrell explained her longstanding effort to reduce the percentage of revenues transferred from the Cobb water system to the general fund—the budget proposal reduces that from 7 to 6 percent—she even got an earful about that.

“Now you’re explaining why people don’t trust government anymore,” East Cobb resident Jim Astuto said.

After a woman suggested that citizens stop voting for the SPLOST, McMorris responded that they should be careful what they wish for.

Some growled back at her, and with a bit of sarcasm McMorris said that, “Yes, we wake up every day trying to figure out how to make people mad.”

As Birrell tried to restore order and an open house format, a man standing in the back of room boomed: “It was a non-speaking meeting until everyone started to speak.”

This year’s record Cobb tax digest is $58 billion, is up 15 percent from last year.

That fueled further criticism that the county should learn to do more with less. Bill Volckmann, the county’s chief financial officer, tried to explain that in some categories where spending is higher, a critical factor is a looming recession, and that “we’re trying to prepare.”

That didn’t sit well in the room either.

“As a stupid man sitting on the sidelines, I don’t see how spending more is saving money,” said Tracy Stephens, a home contractor who also has spoken at public hearings on the budget and tax rate.

At a millage rate public hearing on Tuesday, commissioners heard from citizens in South Cobb, including retirees who complained that higher assessments have raised their tax bill by 20 percent or more.

(District 4 commissioner Monique Sheffield, who represents South Cobb, is scheduled to have a town hall meeting on Monday.)

Of the nearly 50 people at Birrell’s town hall, most of them were middle-age and older, including some retirees who said that with inflationary costs for other living expenses, a much higher tax bill threatens to price them out of their homes.

“Some of my neighbors are worried about losing their homes,” said Barton, who handed out a long list of “Questions for Cobb County” prepared by a citizens group, Cobb Tax Revolt.

A woman who just turned 62—making her eligible for the senior exemption from school taxes—said that still won’t help her much.

“We’re the people who made East Cobb what it is,” she thundered to applause. “We’re the ones who made the schools what they are. . . . You’re pushing all of us out. We’re getting cheated out of our retirements.”

Birrell replied that “I’m doing the best I can to get support and lower the millage rate.”

She said cutting the rate to the “rollback” rate of being tax neutral to the current-year budget isn’t possible.

There are public safety salary and benefit increases that have been factored in.

“There are other things I don’t agree with that we need to get rid of,” Birrell said. “But I need two other votes.”

East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher asked for the budget and millage rate votes to be postponed, both for Birrell’s purposes and for the public to understand the numbers better.

Mack Cobb, a retired youth sports coach and a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year, referenced the failed East Cobb Cityhood efforts. Opponents said citizens in the proposed city would be paying higher taxes, just as those living in Cobb’s other cities do.

“It got bloody,” he said. “We were told, ‘Don’t vote yes, your taxes will go up.’ Well hello? Thank you very much, but my taxes are going up.”

Related:

• Cobb citizens plead for property tax relief
• Proposed FY 2024 Cobb budget has no tax rate cut
• Cobb school board adopts FY 2024 budget; Banks votes present