The Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday night to retain the same property tax rate for the Cobb County School District—18.9 mills—that has been in place since 2007.
But it came after some debate that included attempts by two board members to reduce, or consider lowering, that figure.
A motion by board member Jaha Howard to cut the tax rate to 18.8 mills failed 2-3-1.
Voting present was vice chairman David Banks, who earlier had asked Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to provide a review of Cobb school budget options at the current level, and at 18.0 mills and 17.5 mills.
“I have some reservations” about the current millage rate, Banks said, in light of rising property tax assessments in Cobb County, and other economic factors, including inflation, as well as flattening school enrollment.
The original motion to adopt the 18.9 mills rate passed 4-1-1, with Howard voting against and Banks abstaining.
Although he didn’t mention it in his remarks, Banks has long advocated a LEST, or Local Education Sales Tax, to help provide general fund revenues.
Ragsdale emphatically responded that “it will not be my recommendation to lower” the millage rate.
The Cobb tax digest rose by 11.5 percent this year, Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson told board members at a work session Thursday afternoon.
(That’s less than Cobb County’s overall tax digest growth of 12.3 percent; the Cobb school district does not tax inside the city of Marietta, which has its own school system.)
The digest increase netted the Cobb district an additional $70 million in tax revenues.
Since the board did not “roll back” the millage rate to last year’s revenues, the district is required by state law to advertise a tax increase and hold three public hearings before officially setting the millage rate.
The last of those hearings was Thursday night. A resident spoke in favor of cutting the millage rate, saying her school tax bill was more than $1,000 higher than last year.
But Jeff Hubbard of the Cobb County Association of Educators asked the board to keep the millage rate as is to benefit teachers.
In May, the board adopted a $1.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2023 which began on July 1 at 18.9 mills.
It includes what Ragsdale has said is the largest pay increase in Cobb school district history, ranging from between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees.
Given that most of the budget is made up of teacher salaries, board member Randy Scamihorn said he could not support reducing the tax rate.
In addition to a required balanced budget already being approved, he said, “I will not vote against our teachers.”
Howard said the slight reduction he proposed “will not affect our teachers or educators at all” but it is important to send “a strong sign to the public, a sign of faith to our community.”
He said he was confident that the district could absorb the lower tax revenue, and board member Tre’ Hutchins agreed, “even if it’s minor.”
Banks asked Ragsdale to provide the budget estimates he requested by October.
But Ragsdale said a clearer picture wouldn’t be possible until March, when the Georgia legislature, which funds nearly half of the district’s budget, is in session.
Georgia law caps public school district millage rates at 20 mills. Ragsdale said some other school districts in metro Atlanta have higher rates than that that were grandfathered in before present limits.
Cobb is one of the few districts in metro Atlanta with a broad senior tax exemption for homeowners 62 and older.
District officials have estimated that the exemption comes to more than $100 million a year. But the board’s four-man Republican majority, including Banks—who receives the exemption—has refused to revisit the exemption, which could be removed only through a state constitutional amendment.
Ragsdale said Cobb is able to do what it does with the budget thanks to a fiscally-conservative finance department that “is all about being a good steward of taxpayer funds.”
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