A proposed Cobb property tax increase prompted some feisty comments from citizens Tuesday night at a public hearing before county commissioners.
A good number of those speaking were East Cobb citizens, both in favor of a millage rate increase and against it.
Commissioners also offered extended comments the week before they have to approve a fiscal year 2019 general fund budget and millage rate.
“It’s very close right now,” said JoAnn Birrell, who represents District 3 in Northeast Cobb and who said she is reading everything she gets from citizens on the budget. “I’m hearing you.”
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce is proposing a $453 million budget, a hike of nearly 13 percent from the current $405 million FY 2018 budget.
Some citizens suggested a smaller tax increase than his proposed hike of 1.7 mills, which would yield close to $50 million in new revenues.
Boyce’s budget (click for PDF version here) would restore some services to pre-recession levels, including partial Sunday library hours and for Cobb DOT maintenance. It also would fund new police officer positions and purchase body cameras for public safety personnel.
The FY 2019 budget deficit was projected to be $30 million at the current 6.76 mills. Last week, Boyce concluded a series of town hall meetings around the county at the Sewell Mill Library, and his budget proposal got mixed reviews there.
On Tuesday, citizens brought up Braves stadium financing, the county employee pension plan, transit, non-profit funding and other spending and budget issues.
East Cobb residents Jan Barton and Debbie Fisher, vocal opponents of a tax increase, pointed out that the 1.7-mills increase is to pay for the current FY 2018 budget, not the new budget that takes effect in September.
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“Would you prepay your credit card with $47 million for what you’re going to get next year?” Fisher asked, showing a graphic claiming that the increase would pay for “slush funds and uncontrolled spending.”
She said that no more than an additional 0.23 mills in property tax revenues is needed.
“Animal control, parks and libraries, we all love those,” Fisher said, in reference to categories of possible spending cuts that have been made public. “But I’m not a one-issue voter.”
Northeast Cobb resident Larry Long, who lives in the Mountain View area and is member of Cobb Master Gardeners, supports a tax increase, saying it’s an investment in the county’s future.
“We’ve invested our tax money wisely,” he said. “I don’t want us to go backwards.”
Sarah Mitchell, president of the Mountain View Arts Alliance, said The Art Place is heavily used, including its theater facilities for CenterStage North productions, but still doesn’t have Friday hours due to pre-recession cutbacks.
“It’s hard to sell tickets if you’re closed on Friday,” she said.
Thea Powell of Northeast Cobb, a former county commissioner, referred to some of the information presented at the town hall meetings as a “dog’s breakfast.”
Powell is Boyce’s appointee to the Cobb Planning Commission and served with him on a Cobb Citizen’s Oversight commission that made some budget recommendations in 2012.
However, she was piqued by a part of the “Cobb’s Budget Journey: How We Got Here” presentation related to “unexpected expenses” in county spending outlined in 2014.
The funding of SunTrust Park, approved the year before that, was “not unexpected,” she said. For that and other reasons, she said, the presentation should be renamed “How You Brought Us Here!”
Fran Mitchell, a longtime East Cobb resident, was adamantly against a tax increase, saying “I would like to see some cuts before you decide to raise the millage rate.” She asked commissioners to “make us fiscally responsible again.”
Judi Wilcher, president of of the Cobb Association of Realtors, said a tax increase is necessary “to maintain our quality of life.” She proposed an increase that’s “closer to 1.1 mills” and that would include some library consolidations and reducing five percent of the county work force over three years through attrition.
An increase between those two figures appears to be likely when commissioners finalize the budget. Boyce, of East Cobb, can count on South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid, who emphatically argued that a 1.7-mills hike didn’t go far enough.
Bob Ott, of District 2 in East Cobb, has wanted to see more spending cuts proposed. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, he said “I have a concern about going all the way to 1.7.”
Birrell, who said the budget can’t be balanced on spending cuts alone, expressed a similar sentiment. “A compromise is going to be the best solution,” she said.
North Cobb commissioner Bob Weatherford, who is in a Republican runoff next Tuesday against Keli Gambrill, a tax-increase opponent, said that a figure between 1.1 mills and 1.7 mills “is where we ought to be.”
The final millage rate and budget hearings are next Wednesday at 7 p.m., followed by adoption.
“We’re not done yet,” Boyce said. “We hear you.”
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