While runoff election results were coming in on Tuesday, word was getting out that the Cobb Republican Party urged commissioners not to raise property taxes when they vote on the fiscal year 2019 county budget tonight.
Earlier Tuesday, the Cobb GOP passed a resolution encouraging the commissioners and all elected officials to “exercise fiscal restraint” and called a proposed tax hike “an undue burden on the community.”
(Here’s a PDF version of the full resolution.)
The resolution will be presented by Cobb GOP chairman Jason Shepherd tonight as the Cobb Board of Commissioners is holding its final public hearings on the budget and millage rate at 7 p.m., before adopting both.
The resolution states, in part that:
“Cobb County Government should only provide services not readily available in the private sector and which are not core services of local civil government, especially when facing a budget shortfall;”
Also:
” . . . there have been several examples identified of waste in Cobb County Government spending, and no operational audit of the county government has been performed, nor have any reductions in spending been proposed at the townhall meetings hosted by the Chairman, but many increases in spending have been proposed . . . and a tax increase would be an undue burden on the community.”
The resolution comes at the end of a final push for and against Commission Chairman Mike Boyce’s proposed 1.7-mills tax increase.
He’s taken his proposed $453 million general fund budget around the county at town hall meetings, and citizens on both sides of a tax hike have been vocal.
The Cobb GOP is making a strong statement on a five-member board with four Republican members, including Boyce, who’s from East Cobb. He’s said the tax hike would help move the county forward beyond solving a projected fiscal year 2019 deficit of $30 million.
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At at budget retreat in June, Boyce expressed frustration with fellow commissioners who were reluctant to go along:
“It’s $30 million in an economy of billions. You would think we’re living in Albania! I just don’t understand.”
The Cobb GOP’s resolution echoes the calls of tax hike opponents who said the county needs to do more to find efficiencies, but is aimed at Republican votes on the commission.
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb has said the vote “is very close right now” and said she is considering all comments from constituents.
Another Republican commissioner, who has been targeted by tax increase opponents, lost his bid for re-election last night. Bob Weatherford of District 1 in North Cobb was easily defeated in a runoff by Keli Gambrill, a first-time political candidate, who campaigned against a tax increase. She will join the commission in January since she has no Democratic opponent in the general election.
Weatherford still has a vote tonight, and he and Birrell said at a public hearing last week that a compromise figure on a millage rate increase could be likely.
Commissioner Bob Ott, a Republican who represents East Cobb in District 2, has said he opposes the budget proposal without any significant spending cuts.
Boyce has the support of South Cobb Commissioner Lisa Cupid, the only Democrat, who thinks an additional 1.7 mills is not enough.
The public hearings and commissioners meeting takes place in the 2nd floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
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