Cobb residential and commercial water and sewer customers would be assessed an additional fee for stormwater management under a code amendment proposal to go before the Cobb Board of Commissioners this month.
The proposed code amendment would change a dedicated fee based on the amount of impervious surface of a property. Cobb currently doesn’t charge for that, but has funded stormwater maintenance through water and sewer revenues.
The county has admitted it lacks staffing and resources to adequately handle demands on the system, which include older and failing pipes and maintenance of several hundred detention ponds.
Those concerns were accelerated following floods in East Cobb and elsewhere in the county in 2021, and prompted commissioners to explore the possibility of stormwater fees.
The first hearing on the proposed stormwater fee is Tuesday at 9 a.m., with a second hearing and a scheduled vote on March 26 at 7 p.m.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb is holding a public meeting next Thursday, March 14, at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) from 6-7:30 p.m., along with Cobb Water and Sewer director Judy Jones.
The proposed code amendment (you can read it here) doesn’t specify a rate structure for the stormwater fees, which would be collected from what’s referred to as an “enterprise fund.”
Last November, commissioners were presented with a set of options of stormwater fees ranging from $2.12 to $5 a month.
The Cobb water system currently spends $8.4 million a year on stormwater costs, including capital improvement projects. In November, Jones presented nine options for expanded services that would increase that total to $19 million annually if they were all approved, by collecting $5.01 a month in stormwater fees from individual customers.
Birrell has previously expressed opposition to the stormwater fee, which she considers a tax.
The proposal has been criticized by East Cobb resident Larry Savage, a former candidate for Cobb Commission Chairmain, who makes the same argument.
In an e-mailed message to media and others sent out last week, Savage said while the intent of moving stormwater costs to the water department was to free up the county’s general fund, the current proposal is a tax that that is unlawful because all taxation in Georgia is under the legislature.
“The idea now is to turn stormwater into a cash cow by charging EVERY PROPERTY OWNER a tax based on the area of land covered by impervious surface,” Savage wrote. “Note that I referred to it as a tax. Under the leadership of Chairwoman Cupid, the BoC agreed to call this a ‘fee’ instead of a ‘tax.’ Anyone who would do this clearly believes the people of Cobb County are stupid.”
The full agenda for Tuesday’s meeting can be viewed by clicking here; the meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Related:
- Cobb seeks grants to preserve African-American cemeteries
- Cobb commissioners set 2024 referendum for transit sales tax
- East Cobb transit center, bus routes on Cobb Mobility SPLOST project list
- Cobb to distribute $4.5M in ARPA funds to child care centers
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