Cobb budget meetings

Ott to hold East Cobb town hall meeting in late March

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Ott town hall meeting

The upcoming town hall meeting for Cobb commissioner Bob Ott comes with East Cobb cityhood efforts underway and as a new county budget season on the horizon.

Ott’s office announced Friday his town hall will be March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Catholic Church of St. Ann (4905 Roswell Road).

His town halls usually don’t have a preset agenda, but Ott has indicated recently he wants to provide the public with more information about a proposed City of East Cobb initiative that was revealed in recent months (see our East Cobb Cityhood Resource Page for more).

The map drawn up by cityhood proponents would include unincorporated parts of Ott’s District 2 east of I-75, excluding the Cumblerand Community Improvement District.

Ott said he’s not part of this drive, which was launched by Atlanta Country Club resident Joe Gavalis, his appointee to the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission.

Ott has said he’s sympathetic with constituents who’ve complained that District 2, which includes some of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, provides 40 percent of county tax revenue but doesn’t get that percentage back in services.

That’s one of the factors cited by the Committee for the City of East Cobb, Inc., for pursuing possible cityhood, along with public safety staffing and greater local control of services, including zoning and development.

The group, which formed last September, lists commercial real estate developer G. Owen Brown as its treasurer, but others who are part of the group and who helped fund a municipal feasibility study have not been identified.

The group has hired Republican political consultant and TV pundit Phil Kent to handle public relations and John Garst, another GOP political consultant, to lobby in the legislature.

No local legislation has yet been introduced in the current session of the Georgia General Assembly to call for a referendum that would be required for an East Cobb city to be created. The earliest that vote could take place is 2020.

Some citizens groups of their own have formed Facebook groups relating to the East Cobb Cityhood issue.

One is the City of East Cobb Citizens Group, which sprang up out of a thread on the Nextdoor social platform, saying it is non-partisan and has not taken a position on the issue.

Also coming up in early March are budget and transit town hall meetings by Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce. The first of those sessions take place March 5 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center and March 6 at the East Cobb Senior Center.

After pushing for a property tax hike last year, Boyce has said he will not ask for another one for the fiscal year 2020 budget. Both Ott and Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb voted against that increase.

 

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Cobb budget meetings begin with commissioners retreat next week

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The month of June has been scheduled for Cobb budget meetings and a series of town halls, starting June 18 at the East Cobb Senior Center.

UPDATE: Cobb chairman proposes revised budget, keeping parks and libraries open

But before that, the Board of Commissioners will gather next week for a budget retreat.

That meeting is next Tuesday, June 12, at 1 p.m. in the Hudgins Hall Conference/Multipurpose Room of the Cobb County Civic Center (548 South Marietta Parkway).

Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has advocated raising the millage rate on property taxes as a way for the county to continue to deliver what he calls “five-star” services.

The county government is facing an estimated deficit for fiscal year 2019 of at least $30 million.

Related coverage

Boyce has initially suggested a millage increase of 1.1 mills (which would generate an extra $30 million in revenue) to the current general fund rate of 6.76.

In his weekly video update with county communications director Ross Cavitt (view below), he said that “1.1 mills just puts the finger in the dike.”

A full proposal to fund a balanced budget hasn’t been presented. However, the head of the county library system has proposed cutting nearly a quarter of the system’s $12 million budget and closing the East Cobb Library.

East Cobb’s commissioners generally have opposed property tax increases. Bob Ott of District 2 has said that he wouldn’t support an increase without seeing substantial cuts first. JoAnn Birrell of District 3 won her GOP primary last week after publicly opposing raising property taxes.

Cobb budget meetings, Cobb Millage Rate Chart 1990-2018

In the video, Boyce showed charts illustrating how Cobb’s millage rate has steadily come down over the last 25 or so years, being raised to address the recession. Two years ago, then-chairman Tim Lee, facing Boyce in a runoff, proposed an overall millage rate reduction to 9.85 (and 6.66 for the general fund) that passed, with Ott and Birrell voting with him.

“We have had a lower millage rate although our population has increased by more than 300,000” since the 1990s, Boyce said.

The town hall meetings are scheduled around the county, including another in East Cobb on July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

Commissioners will hold public hearings on the budget and millage rate on July 10, 27 and 25, with adoption of both scheduled for July 25.

 

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