In their third public appearance, leaders of an East Cobb cityhood group announced Wednesday they had formed a finance committee to put in motion a working budget proposal.
David Birdwell and Rob Eble, the spokesman for the cityhood steering committee, said the panel is made up of financial experts, including corporate CFOs.
They wouldn’t identify those with the financial committee for now, but Eble said after a Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance meeting at Brumby Elementary School that one of the individuals has some public budgeting experience.
The committee also will be scrutinizing a financial feasibility study conducted for the cityhood group by researchers at Georgia State University (read it here).
“They’re going to go line-by-line through that feasibility study,” Eble said, to ensure it’s accurate and “to try and create a budget.”
The feasibility study concluded that a City of East Cobb providing police, fire and community development services (including planning and zoning), and based on a population of 96,000, would have projected revenues of $49.8 million, and expenses totalling $45.6 million (see chart from the study in graphic below).
That’s with a property tax rate levied at 2.96 mills, the same paid by homeowners in unincorporated Cobb now for fire services.
Revising the map?
The feasibility study was requirement for a cityhood bill to be filed in the recent Georgia legislative session, which includes a proposed city charter and a proposed map that is likely to change.
(View the interactive city map here)
The cityhood group also was scheduled to meet Thursday with officials at the state reapportionment office about the possibility of changing the boundary lines.
Birdwell and Eble both characterized the meeting as seeking out “scenarios” for moving the lines beyond the current boundaries, roughly the East Cobb portion of commissioner Bob Ott’s District 2, to include more of the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones.
The proposed city does not include any of the Sprayberry or Kell clusters.
Both said they didn’t know how the final lines might be drawn, as that is a function of the legislature as it considers the cityhood bill next year.
Birdwell did reiterate the cityhood group’s insistence that those living in a City of East Cobb wouldn’t be paying higher tax rates than they are now.
Changing the city lines would mean changing all those financial numbers, and Birdwell said that “if it’s a real material change, we’ll figure out a way to do the feasibility study to satisfy the [legislative] process.”
Skepticism remains
One citizen trying to keep an open mind is Connie Day, a member of the PFCA board who lives near Brumby in the Stratford neighborhood.
While she said she appreciates the cityhood group for addressing “what’s on peoples’ minds” about the issue, she wonders what the impact will be on taxes.
When asked if she thought the city could be run at or below the current county millage rate, Day laughed for a second, then said, “the skeptic in me says it’s going to be a challenge.”
Day said her property tax assessment has gone up by 20 percent, so she’s already paying more in taxes anyway. That’s not her only question.
“If feels like another layer of government,” she said. “I’m not dissatisfied with the level of services I’m getting now. Right now, I’m not feeling the pain point” that might persuade her to support cityhood (a referendum would take place if the legislature passes the cityhood bill next year).
Also listening to the cityhood group’s presentation Wednesday was Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, who has noted previously that all six Cobb municipalities have higher tax millage rates than the county.
He said he was encouraged to hear about the budget proposal, so “we can get a real comparison.”
Eble said the budget committee’s work could be done in another 60 days or so.
The cityhood group is planning another town hall in mid-June.
More East Cobb News Cityhood Coverage
- Defining and redrawing the East Cobb city map
- How many police officers would a City of East Cobb need?
- Cityhood leaders press case for “more local control”
- More: East Cobb News Cityhood Page
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Several months after forming an organization to explore incorporating a portion of East Cobb, representatives of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb are formally taking their case to the public.
