By Mark Woolsey
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners finalized the county’s 2027 budget and 2026 millage rates at a meeting on Tuesday after some pointed discussion. The vote was divided, with GOP commissioners Keli Gambrill and Jo Ann Birrell casting no votes.
The operating budget was set at $1.4 billion, an increase of $84 million from this year.
Millage rates were not changed from the current year-they are 8.46 mills for the county’s general fund, 2.97 for the fire fund and 2.45 for the Cumberland Special Services District 2.
Although millage rates stayed flat, the county was required to publicly advertise a tax increase, what with an additional multi-million-dollar windfall coming from the reassessment process and resulting higher property tax bills for some.
That led to suggestions that millage rates be tolled back to a level where more revenue won’t be gathered for this coming year.
To learn more about millage rates, and about when governments are required to conduct public tax increase hearings, follow this link.
Also tucked into the budget are a number of new positions and a two percent cost of living raise for county employees. Top-performing county workers could snag merit raises of up to three percent in addition to that.
Both “people” matters drew stiff criticism from speakers at the last of three public hearings.
Speaker Virginia Choate said the 2 percent raise is coming “despite high inflation and that many roles are already competitive. And vacancies can already be managed.”
She called both the increase and the addition of some 20 new hires as fiscally irresponsible.
Another speaker complained that keeping the millage rate flat will “generate millions in excess revenue at a time when families and businesses are struggling.”
Commissioner Erick Allen gave a vote of confidence to staff for their work, which he voted in favor of. He then went on to say that the budget process needs to be overhauled.
“Moving forward I hope to see a fundamental shift where we have open discussion and rigorous debate directly among the commissioners. We need to be fully utilizing our work sessions and retreats to debate priorities.”
Commissioner Keli Gambrill agreed, saying that “we need to have more robust conversations that happen outside of a meeting to approve the budget.” And that she had a hard time with some of the priorities outlined.
She criticized, for example, a pedestrian coordinator hire, funding the position but providing no funding to make improvements.
“There are many things in this budget that I support but what I don’t agree with is we have yet to address overspending by certain departments,” said Gambrill.
The other Republican member of the board, Jo Ann Birrell, echoed both Allen and Gambrill saying “we have to have more open and transparent discussion.”
But she added “What we shouldn’t do is the departments that are over budget year after year, why do we reward those departments by increasing their budgets the next year?”
Commissioner Monique Sheffield for her part said, “that the budget is more than a financial document, it is a statement of our values and priorities.”
She said she supports the plan because it represents a balance of good financial stewardship and making sure that it provides the services that residents rely on.
County officials say the budget also includes a $17 million stormwater utility fund and a water and sewer capital increase also in the $17 million neighborhood.
View the video of the discussion and vote below: