A week after a group touting East Cobb cityhood released a rosy financial feasibility study, the report was revised with a projection of additional annual revenue.
The report, prepared by Georgia State University researchers and made public Dec. 11, initially included no revenue from the state title ad valorem tax (TATV), explaining that the proposed city of East Cobb has no car dealerships.
But the revised report, which was dated Dec. 18 and made public today, acknowledges that the TAVT calculation is based on where motor vehicles are registered.
The revenue based on vehicles in the proposed city of East Cobb, according to the revised report, would come to nearly $1.4 million a year.
Here’s a link to the revised study, which explains the calculation in detail on Page 8. The estimated revenue table on Page 22 and shown in the chart above includes that line item, which was absent from the initial study (PDF here).
The estimated annual revenue for the City of East Cobb would rise from $48.4 million to $49.8 million. The estimated annual expenses are unchanged, at around $46 million a year.
The expenses would include police, fire and emergency services, planning and zoning and for general administration.
The updated report still concludes that East Cobb cityhood is financially feasible. The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood, Inc. paid $36,000 to commission the report by GSU’s Center for State and Local Finance.
It’s one of two entities, along with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, that conducts required feasibility reports for those seeking cityhood.
The two-year process includes state legislation that would call for a referendum to be voted on by residents of a proposed municipality. New cities must provide a minimum of three services.
The revision of the 22-page East Cobb cityhood study noted the addition of the ad valorem revenue and said “no other material changes were made.”
In an e-mail response to a request by East Cobb News, Phil Kent, the public relations consultant for the cityhood group, said the revised study also “answered critics with additional references to the base year 2017 for its property tax analysis.”
We’ve followed up for a further explanation and will update when we get it.
The proposed city of East Cobb includes unincorporated areas of Cobb Commission District 2 that are east of I-75 and outside the Cumberland Community Improvement District.
The population of that area comes to around 96,000.
The initial GSU study was circulated to a select group of community influencers in East Cobb right before Christmas, and some of them had concerns about the numbers and methodology.
One of those citizens, Joe O’Connor, resigned in protest, accusing the cityhood group of a lack of transparency.
Little is known about who is behind the cityhood drive other than its president, Atlanta Country Club resident Joe Gavalis, and G. Owen Brown, founder of the East Cobb-based Retail Planning Corp.
Thea Powell, a former Cobb commissioner who also is part of the ad hoc citizens advisory board, said she found information about East Cobb businesses outdated, going back to 2012, during the aftermath of the recession.
The East Cobb cityhood group has not indicated what its next steps may be or when the public may be informed of its plans.
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