[Photo: Mableton City Council October 26, council members Jeffcoat and Ferguson were absent]
The City of Mableton is still setting up the processes to capture revenue and plan for expenses, but at last night’s city council meeting, the city’s interim financial consultant Frank Milazi presented a snapshot of how much Mableton has collected in revenue, and how much has been spent.
Mayor Michael Owens said that the revenue and expenditures are for the period from the beginning of the year to October 26.
He said the plan is to hold a public hearing at the beginning of November to discuss a spending plan that will get the city through June 30, 2024. After that hearing another meeting will be held to gather more input. Then the city council will vote on the plan.
Later in the meeting, after the the council returned from executive session, they scheduled the meetings for November 2, 9, and 30.
That will get the city through the beginning of the next fiscal year, when a formal budget planning cycle will be put in place, Owens said.
The city has received $1,414,465.89 since the beginning of the year, with by far the largest portion coming from the taxes on vehicle sales within the city.
The money spent so far this year was $109,751.75.
The remaining money in the city’s account as of last night was $1,304,714.14.
The breakdown of the city’s revenue is:
| Source | Notes | Amount |
| Cobb County | Vehicle sales within city | $964,298.73 |
| Greystone Power | Franchise fee | $335,619.19 |
| Cobb Electric | Franchise fee | $90,819.40 |
| Emory Hospitality | Hotel tax | $11,490.40 |
| Shakti Hospitality | Hotel tax | $1,873.93 |
| GSCA Hospitality | Hotel tax | $2,032.00 |
| Jaydave Inc. | Hotel tax | $1,373.86 |
| Misc Hospitality | Hotel tax | $5,690.44 |
| Interest Earned | Banking | $1,267.94 |
| $1,414,465.89 |
The following is a summary of the expenditures so far this year:
| Reimbursements paid out | $101,637.20 |
| Paycom Payroll Services | $7,391.37 |
| Bank fees | $508.72 |
| Bank checks ordered | $214.46 |
There were also deferred expenses that haven’t been paid out:
| GMA orientation | $3,708.04 |
| GMA orientation | $7,842.00 |
| GMA retreat | $2,244.68 |
| Interdev Computing devices | $16,562.00 |
| Google workspace | $1,620.00 |
| Interdev Software ($362/month) | $3,258.00 |
| AT&T | $239.92 |
| $35,474.64 |
The Courier spoke with Mayor Owens before the council went into executive session near the end of the meeting, and he said that the revenue from the tax on vehicle sales has varied wildly from month to month, but that it overall exceeded what was expected when the feasability study was done, possibly due to the economy improving after the end of the COVID pandemic.
“I did want to make clear that the motor vehicle tax is not somebody that Cobb just said, ‘Here you go’, because for some reason people tend to think that we became a city therefore Cobb just gave us 10% of what they were getting,” Owens said.
Other business taken up at the meeting
Other items on the agenda included:
- The first reading of the ordinance that includes business licenses and taxes, modeled closely on Cobb County’s ordinance
- An announcement that a website, developed in-house, will launch soon
- A preliminary organizational chart for the city was presented, along with a proposed chart showing salary ranges (to see the chart and table follow this link to the agenda packet
