Cobb government finance officials on Tuesday presented an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget that would increase spending by nearly $100 million.
During a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session, Chief Financial Officer William Volckmann said the formal budget budge tproposal would come to a little more than $1.35 billion, based on requests from department heads.
That’s up $92.7 million from the adopted FY 2025 budget of $1.27 billion, with $74,3 million coming from the general fund.
(You can view current and recent budget details here; updated FY 2026 information also will be posted at that link.)
Much of the additional funding would pay for 290 new requested positions across the government, primarily in public safety, as well as increases in costs for pensions, health care and other employee benefits and insurance.
The biggest single increase in funding by department is the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, which is requesting 113 new full-time positions for a total budget of around $27 million.
Volckmann didn’t break down how many of those positions would be for patrol officers and support staff.
“This is quite a big budget request,” said Commissioner Keli Gambrill, who asked for a breakdown of positions within the Sheriff’s Office that may provide duplicative services.
The second-largest jump comes from Cobb Police, which is asking for an additional $8.8 million, with $5.8 million earmarked for 17 new full-time positions.
Information technology spending would go up by $6 million, and $5 million more is being requested by the library system, with most of that funding for capital improvements, Volckmann said.
The Cobb County Water Fund—which is separate from the general fund, the main source of government operations—would increase by nearly $12 million, primarily for additional maintenance and infrastructure costs for water, sewer and stormwater management.
Water revenues are derived from water and sewer bills paid by commercial and residential customers. Commissioners voted in December to approve water and sewer rate increases through 2029, at an additional 3.5 percent each year.
For the last two years, commissioners have adopted budgets of $1.2 billion and $1.27 billion, largely due to significant increases in the county tax digest.
The current FY 2025 budget was adopted with growth in the tax digest coming to more than 7 percent.
But last week, the Cobb Tax Assessor’s Office projected digest growth of only 2 percent for 2025.
Commissioners have come under fire from citizens both years for not “rolling back” the property tax rate to offset the additional revenues.
Tuesday’s presentation was the kickoff to a formal budget presentation at the end of June.
He said before then, commissioners will receive detailed binders with the budget proposals and will be able to discuss revenue projections before prioritizing requests.
Public hearings on the budget proposal and county millage rates will take place on July 8, 15 and 22, with adoption scheduled for the latter date.
Related:
- Server outage affecting some Cobb online systems
- Cobb libraries enable wireless printing from mobile devices
- 2025 Cobb tax digest projected to grow by 2 percent
- Cobb Police Precinct 6 to have ribbon-cutting ceremony
- Cobb County government releases 2024 annual report
- Cobb Tax Assessors board names new director, chief appraiser
- Cobb opts out of property tax law; starts 2028 SPLOST process
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