Top East Cobb stories for 2018: Cobb property taxes increased in 'restoration budget'

East Cobb citizens spoke out strongly on both sides of a proposed property tax increase that was approved in July as part of the Cobb fiscal year 2019 budget.

The general fund budget of $454 million includes a boost in the millage rate of 1.7 mills to 8.46. Services like fire and water are included in separate millage rates.

The boost came in spite of a record Cobb tax digest, but the county was facing what Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said was a $30 million deficit.

The current budget is funding the hiring of additional police and public safety positions, additional road work crews and increased library hours. Boyce calls it a “restoration budget,” as some of those services had been cut back during the recession.

A contentious, months-long public discussion about the budget, including town hall meetings, came after proposed or possible cuts in county services were made public.

They included the proposed closure of the East Cobb Library and the possible closing of other facilities, including The Art Place-Mountain View, the Mountain View Aquatic Center and Fullers Park.

A number of citizens groups formed, including Save Cobb Libraries. East Cobb resident Rachel Slomovitz galvanized countywide support for libraries, as advocates were vocal at town hall meetings.

Boyce, an East Cobb resident and a Republican completing his second year in office, was adamant that taxes had to go up to keep Cobb “a five-star county.”

After the outcry from those fearing further cutbacks in services, Boyce revised the budget to include the preservation of parks and library services, and said “We’re not closing anything.”

But Boyce struggled to find a third commissioner (along with South Cobb’s Lisa Cupid) to vote for a tax increase.

At a summer budget retreat, he grew openly frustrated with his colleagues.

“I get it. You don’t want to stick your neck out. But this isn’t hard. It’s $30 million in an economy of billions. You would think we’re living in Albania! I just don’t understand.”

Cobb budget — *East Cobb commissioners Bob Ott, left, and JoAnn Birrell voted against the FY 2019 budget. (ECN file)*

East Cobb commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell voted against the final budget proposal. Commissioner Bob Weatherford of North Cobb, in a re-election battle, indicated ahead of his runoff that he would support the increase. The day after he lost convincingly to Keli Gambrill, an opponent of a tax hike, he cast the decisive vote in favor of Boyce’s budget, and said he had no regrets.

“The only thing I’m running for now is the hills, but I do not want to leave the county worse than than when I got here,” he said.

A few weeks after the vote, Ott said the only benefit of the tax increase for his constituents in District 2 was a Cobb DOT work crew.

Among other things, he said he didn’t like the way the proposed budget cuts were presented to the public, which he heard plenty about from citizens: “I tell them that the services that are being threatened to be taken away were never proposals that came before the board.

“A borrowed quote from William S. Buckley sums up this tax increase and budget: ‘What do we care how much we—the government—owe so long as we owe it to ourselves? On with the spending. Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect . . .’ ”