Fight Cobb Tax Hike
Commission Chairman Tim Lee is proposing raising the millage rate by 17 percent on the property owners in the county.
In case you haven’t heard, Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee is proposing a 17 percent millage rate hike on the property owners in the county.
If approved by the Board of Commissions, it will increase the taxes on a $200,000 home by about $111; a larger home would be more. I guess Lee feels that since the bad economy has significantly decreased home values over the past three years, we wouldn’t notice a 17 percent millage rate increase.
Perhaps that’s true for families who still have jobs, but for those who are out of work or underemployed and struggling to make ends meet, it’s just another slap in the face by an out-of-touch government.
That our county government doesn’t realize that we are now in the clutches of the worst and longest economic slump since the Great Depression was evident when it pushed so hard for the costly special election, which resulted in the 2011 SPLOST.
Lee’s unrelenting insistence on continuing that tax is indicative of a tax-and-spend pattern that seems to be defining his term.
The chairman appears to have developed a penchant for saying one thing and then doing quite the opposite. Last November, I sat in Lee’s office along with two other Georgia Tea Party members and discussed the proposed SPLOST with him.
We asked him point blank if he was going to ask for a property tax increase if the SPLOST didn’t pass. He said no, and that the county enjoyed the lowest millage rate in the metro Atlanta area and he would not recommend raising it, regardless of the outcome.
Yet, SPLOST supporters (Lee’s surrogates) threatened us with tax increases if the SPLOST wasn’t passed. They implied that if the SPLOST was passed, no tax increase would be necessary.
Many Cobb voters fell for that lie and now not only do we have the penny sales tax, but also the real prospect of a property tax increase to boot.
Last December, Lee promised Commissioner Bob Ott that if Ott would vote in favor of the SPLOST election, he (Lee) would appoint a Citizen Oversight Committee to look into Cobb’s budget and find ways to cut costs.
They were to report before the March 15 SPLOST vote. Lee conveniently didn’t empanel the committee until after the vote, and they didn’t make their first report until June 26. Adding insult to injury, Lee currently is marginalizing the committee’s work and virtually ignoring it.
I’ve been to some of the Oversight Committee meetings, and they’re doing good work. Their recommendations should not be ignored. Unfortunately, Lee is calling for a vote on the tax increase about a month before the Oversight Committee is scheduled to complete its work.
The question is: Are you going to stand up against, or at least question, the heavy-handed tactics of Cobb’s commission chairman? If you don’t care, just sit on your hands and do nothing. If you do care, there are lots of things you can do:
- Attend County Commission meetings. They meet on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. The next regular meeting is this morning at 9 a.m. There will be two special public hearings on the property tax increase on July 19 at 8 a.m. and at 6 p.m. Be there and share your thoughts with the Board of Commissioners. Then at the next regular commission meeting on July 26 at 7 p.m., the commissioners will vote on the tax increase measure.
- Read the Citizens Oversight Committee report.
- Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, opposing the tax rate hike.
- Email the commissioner of your district and register your objections. In the Powder Springs area, your Commissioner is either Helen Goreham or Woody Thompson. Helen Goreham currently supports a tax increase and Woody Thompson is non-committal. Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Bob Ott appear to oppose the hike at this time.
As an individual, you may feel powerless to stop this, but one thing’s for sure, if you do nothing, your taxes will increase and you will have only yourself to blame.
Tom Maloy, a retired businessman and 30-year Powder Springs resident, is a board member of the Georgia Tea Party. Contact him at tom@thegeorgiateaparty.org.
Nick Adams
8:16 am on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The decision should be easy for all Cobb County residents. Cobb is a very conservative government and has very little waste (like DeKalb). One of the most prominent national conservatives, Bob Barr, was on the Citizen Oversight Committee and even he could find very little to cut.
Without this small millage increase, services will be cut; libraries will be closed, crime will continue to increase, grass won't be mowed, parks will be closed, and ISO rates will go up due to less fire protection. As a result, our quality of life will decrease which will lead to less businesses and people moving into Cobb. Which will result in an even smaller tax base.
As painful as it sounds, Cobb needs a small tax increase to keep Cobb great. E-mail you commissioners and implore them to make the tough, but necessary decision.
Margaret Thomson
9:05 am on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
You Teapartiers want to cannibalize all the things that made (note past tense) Cobb County a great place to live. $111/year is $2/week. Honestly, is there ANYONE who doesn't waste that much in a week? An iced tea in a restaurant, two Cokes, more cable or cell phone than they need? Get real. Cobb County is going down the tubes, and we need that VERY SMALL tax increase to maintain the status quo. We spent $125,000 upgrading our house in the past 5 years because we planned to live here forever. Now I wish we hadn't, so we could afford to move someplace progressive, that is looking to the future, not just knee-jerk saying No More Taxes.
Pam J
9:29 am on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Even though the timing is bad, it won't be too bad if the millage rate goes up a smidgen. It's been the same rate since 2007, which is when it last changed. And it went down from 2006 to 2007. We've been lucky so far that they haven't fooled with it. It's just a bad time to raise taxes but I won't try to stop it.
David Lombrozo
10:04 am on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Notice how someone feeling that 'they implied' becomes an absolute 'they promised'? Typical Tea Party way to twist fiction to fact in order to oppose taxes at every mention. Comments above are very reasonable. I can't wait to see some hard core, tea party supporting, knee jerk reactionary comments. For my part a couple bucks a week to have someone mow the medians and rights of way are worth it!
Tom Maloy
10:57 am on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
For all of you who are clammoring for this 17% millage rate hike, you might want to first consider a few facts. 1. The Cobb Commission will be voting on this tax increase on July 26th, without adequate information. The citizen oversight committee that they impaneled to determine potential cost savings and efficiencies will not have quantified their findings until next month. So the Commissioners themselves don't know how much of a tax hike they need or if one is needed at all. Talk about a knee jerk reaction, that's a great example. 2. Bob Barr wasn't even at the most recent Oversight Committee meeting, so you may want to take what he is purported to have said with a grain of salt. Frankly, I have not heard him comment on how much can be cut. I have talked with Commissioner Bob Ott and he wants to wait until the Oversight Committee's final report. 3. The fact that the Commissioners "haven't fooled with" the millage rate for several years isn't "luck", but just good economic sense. The idea that we should raise the millage rate because other metro counties have higher ones is simply idiotic and illogical. Perhaps those of you who enjoy paying higher taxes should just send in a little extra this October, and those of us who don't enjoy it will wait until enough information is available for the Cobb Commission to make a thoughtful decision.
David Lombrozo
5:24 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Tom, There will always be another study to be read, another voice to be heard and more information that no one has ever considered. Investment and services by the county is what keeps our home values high, not low taxes. I'm willing to pay $2 a month for my $200,000 home to keep my home from becoming a $150,000 home.
Pam J
4:59 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
On a side note, I don't think it's 17%. I think there should be decimal point in there somewhere. Or am I just reading it wrong?
David Lombrozo
5:19 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Pam, if, for example, you are paying 6.82 mills and want to raise it to 8 mills, technically, the increase is only an additional .0112% or $112 dollars on a $100,000 home. But that doesn't sound enough so they declare that it's really a 8mills vs 6.82 mills. increase (i.e., 17%) If they can remove their myopic 'no taxes' blinders, the increase for all of us is really around 5% of our total tax bill. That doesn't sound good enough. As they say, 'Figures don't lie, but liars figure!'
Pam J
6:00 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
So, the current millage rate is 0.02875 (if you live outside a city limit). If it goes up 17%, what will it be? I thought I understood this, but apparently I don't.
Tom Maloy
6:03 pm on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
David, I'm no liar and I do know how to use a calculator. If you are paying just 6.82 mills, you must be living in another county. I pay 9.6 mills currently and according to Commissioner Lee himself, he wants to hike the millage rate to 11.2 mills. Now that is a 16.77 percent increase in millage rate no matter how you figure it. You will not find anywhere in my column that I believe in 'no taxes', because that would be nonsense, but a tax increase should be based on consideration of all the information, a commodity of which the Cobb County Commission is a bit short. And I don't believe they should be bullied into an ill conceived tax hike before they get it.
David Lombrozo
1:06 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Pam, You understand correctly. Our total property tax rate is 2.875% but that includes many portions. Tim Lee was only talking about increasing the County rate (currently 6.82 mills) and the Fire rate (currently 2.56 mills). The total increase is around 1.6 mills. That would be a 17% increase of the only the county and fire combined or around 5% increase of the total property tax rate that we pay outside of the city limits. No matter how you figure, it's around $2 per week per $200,000 home in Cobb County.
David Lombrozo
1:02 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tom, I never said you were a liar nor did I say you didn't know how to use a calculator. However, I did say you were manipulating the numbers so they sound larger. (17% vs. 5%) I don't know what you are paying in property taxes since I don't know where you live. Everyone in Cobb County pays 6.82 mills as their county rate in their property taxes. Per the Cobb County Tax Commissioner's Office, the county rate is 6.82 mills for the entire county, 18.9 mills for the school, .25 for the state, 2.56 for the fire and .22 for the county bond. A third of the proposed increase is exclusively for the fire department. Are you advocating cutting more costs from our firemen and closing more stations to save 67 cents a week for a $200,000 home? I support our hard working firemen and I wish the Tea Party would also.
Tom Maloy
9:22 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
David, The numbers I used to figure the 17% came straight from the mouth of Commissioner Tim Lee himself. (Marietta Daily Journal, July 9, 2011 -- "Lee said the increase would take the county's rate to 11.21 mills from 9.6 mills, about $111 more per year for a $200,000 home." That's a 17% increase in millage rate. Now, how that is divided for fire services is yet another thing that hasn't been addressed in Lee's comments. I and the Georgia Tea Party support our fire fighters and policemen and women. Those were the two areas where we felt SPLOST money should be used when we battled against the bloated SPLOST project list. Unfortunately 'Public Safety' will receive less than 2 percent of the 2011 SPLOST funds. To imply that the Georgia Tea Party doesn't support fire and police services is absolutely false and indicates that you have never been to a Georgia Tea Party meeting and therefore lack knowledge about that subject. I invite you to attend a meeting any Thursday evening at 6:45. We hold them at the old Anderson Chevrolet dealership at 900 Roswell street, just east of the Roswell Baptist Church. There will be one tonight. Hope to see you there.
David Lombrozo
9:52 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tom, I glad you say you and the tea party support the fire department. So that takes out .6 mills of the 1.6 mill proposed increase. So we are now talking paying about 0.1% of our assessed value in our house. Since everyone in Cobb County is only taxed on 40% of our assessed value of our house, a 200,000 home would only see an increase of taxes of $1.5 a week to general county services. I personally like paying my taxes because that means I have had the good fortune to own property and work. I also view taxes as investment in my community and supporting the value of my property through good roads, neat parks and good schools. Until the Tea Party stands for anything except lower all taxes all the time and all the dire consequences that go along with that ideology, I doubt I would ever attend their meetings. Maybe you need to attend local Democratic, Republican and Libertarian party meetings to get an idea where some people try to do things that improve the value and welfare of the community instead of their own pocketbooks.
susan penick
1:27 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
I am noticing comments being made in reference to tax rates in and outside the city limits. Do homes inside city limits pay different portions of tax...possibly exclude fire if this service is provided by the city?
David Lombrozo
9:56 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Susan, You're right. Austell, Marietta and Smyrna have their own FDs, pay their own way and don't pay Fire taxes to the counties. The other cities don't have their own FDs and do pay the fire taxes. Except for Mariette having their own Schools and not paying the School taxes to the city,all the other cities pay all the other taxes that those not in city limits pay.
Pam J
10:11 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Regardless of all the for and against comments being made, it's just a bad time to raise any kind of tax. Especially after Mr. Lee said that he would not raise the property tax millage rate. How about giving the residents of Cobb County a break for a year. I've been unemployed for more than a year now, so the chance that I may get a check from my mortgage company next year because of the overage in my escrow account makes me happy. My brother's value went down last year and he got a check for over $700 AND his payment went down. And it doesn't matter if the county devalued a lot of homes because there are so many foreclosures and it's difficult to sell your house, much less make a profit. So I guess I have decided I don't want the increase. And my party affiliation has nothing to do with it. My bank account does.
David Lombrozo
11:05 am on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Pam, per the above, Tim Lee never said he would never raise taxes. I note that all the tax cuts in the last several years didn't save your job or mine or many others in Cobb County. All the low tax rates in Cobb County didn't keep our values up. You probably will save more money in annual fees by closing an extra bank account or cancelling an unused credit card than Tim Lee is asking for an increase. I am also pinching pennies, but I don't want all the weeds on public property to lower my property values just so I can pay less taxes or get a refund on my escrow account.
Marlene Mitchell
2:03 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wow, I'm getting in on the tail end of this heated debate. Taxes vs No New Taxes.
I'll weigh in with my 2 cents worth. I'm going to side with the "No New Taxes" crowd. I have lived in Cobb County for close to thirty years. Low taxes and a great school district were the main reasons we picked Cobb. As the decades slipped by and our county prospered our tax obligation went right up also. Now that things aren't looking so good for a large portion of our community and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for any type of recovery any time soon I think we need to reconsider what the county's obligation really is to the taxpayers.
I, for one, am getting more than a little tired of having the teachers, fire department and police department taken hostage every time the county wants an influx of new funds. The County purposely spends close to $500,000 on a special SPLOST elections to insure its passing. The reason I say 'purposely' is Mr. Lee said it was done on purpose so it would pass. I was at the town hall meeting when he admitted to it. If the county is so hard up for cash they certainly aren't showing good faith to the tax payers by spending close to a half a million on an election that should and could have been included in the general election.
Tax money should be spent wisely and I no longer believe our elected leaders are being good stewards of our tax dollar.
Cutting back doesn't equal doing without. We need to choose wisely.
Lori Roberts
9:04 am on Monday, July 18, 2011
Might we recommend implementing the spending cuts as recommended by the Oversight Committee FIRST, and then review Cobb County's fiscal situation before rushing to increase the millage rate. Politicians like to panic citizens with "potential cuts affecting our safety" -- when there are other non-essential services that could be cut. I still like the idea of generating extra revenue by getting the business community to sponsor certain public venues: e.g. libraries could be financially sponsored by tutoring businesses. (Just give the the business a corner within the building to conduct their educational activities.)