While the fiscal year 2021 budget to be proposed next week will not include an increase in the millage rate, it also won’t include a “rollback” millage rate to counter a rise in the county’s tax digest.
That’s why Cobb government is required by law to announce a proposed property tax increase of 3.66 percent in the general fund, when public hearings also begin next week.
The budget proposal and tax digest details are to be presented to the Cobb Board of Commissioners at a work session on Monday, with public hearings starting on Tuesday.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has said he wants to maintain the current general fund millage rate of 8.46 mills. The budget commissioners will adopt later this month includes other services with their own millage rates, and the proposals are as follows:
Fire, 2.86 mills;
Debt Service (Bond Fund), 0.13 mills;
Cumberland Special Services District II, 2.45 mills;
Six Flags Special Service District, 3.50 mills.
The general fund “rollback” rate—what would produce the same total tax revenue from the current digest without reassessments—is 8.161 mills. If adopted as proposed, the increase would come to an increase of 0.299 mills.
A home with a fair market value of $300,000 would have an annual increase of $32.89. A non-homestead home with a fair market value of $425,000 would see an increase of $50.83.
The county said in a statement issued Tuesday that “the continued recovery of the Cobb real estate market is the primary reason for this modest growth in property values and this corresponding increase in the county’s property tax digest.”
The current tax digest is a record $39 billion. The general fund budget for FY 2020 is $475 million. The public hearings are scheduled as follows:
Here’s the full budget and millage rate public hearing schedule, and keep in mind there are three separate hearings each for the budget and millage rate:
Monday, July 13, 2 p.m.—Recommended FY 2021 budget presented to commissioners at work session
Tuesday, July 14, 9 a.m.—First public hearing
Tuesday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.—Second public hearing
Tuesday, July 28, 7 p.m.—Third public hearing and board adoption
That last meeting is also slated for final budget adoption. More Cobb budget information can be found here.
Here’s more from the Cobb Tax Commissioners Office on the county’s millage rate history, and the millage rates compared to the six cities in the county.
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A proposed Cobb property tax increase prompted some feisty comments from citizens Tuesday night at a public hearing before county commissioners.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said she and her colleagues “are still looking at everything” while deciding on the FY 2019 Cobb budget. (East Cobb News file photo)
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.
“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.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said getting months of budget input from the public “makes us do our job better.” (East Cobb News file photo)
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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