Tim Lee needs to cover a lot of ground — well beyond the 60 acres in Cumberland where a new Atlanta Braves stadium and mixed-use development will rise — when he delivers his State of the County address this morning to hundreds of Cobb County’s business, civic and government leaders.
Lee, the chairman of the county commission who helped negotiate the Braves’ move to Cobb County last year, said landing the big leagues in suburban Cobb will certainly be a big part of his annual address at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
But the most urgent message is that Cobb continued its climb out of the recession last year, and the chairman expects continued growth in 2014.
In an interview last week, Lee said the county finished last year with revenues slightly up over projections, property values lost no ground, and expenses stayed in check. All of that allowed the county a modest surplus.
Cobb also added to its rainy-day fund, which now has $48.8 million, or about 15 percent of the county’s budget.
“Everything we’ve done to get us ready for this year worked,” Lee said. “We ended 2013 without an Achilles heal. We have a clean slate heading into ‘14, and we anticipate we’ll be slightly up from a revenue perspective.”
Other reasons for optimism, Lee said: Investment levels have finally scratched their way back to pre-recession levels, and the county maintained its triple AAA bond rating for the 17th consecutive year.
Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said such speeches are always a combination of looking forward and looking back. He said they can sometimes turn into “boast sessions,” and said he definitely expects Lee to take a victory lap for landing the Braves.
“For an incumbent, these speeches serve that dual purpose: Here’s what we’re going to do and here’s what we accomplished under my brilliant leadership,” Bullock said with a laugh. “What’s more significant is what the leadership of the community is thinking about over the next year, or several years.”
Lee said he wants the county to seize more economic development opportunities that he expects to come in the wake of the Braves move. Braves executives are expected to be on hand for the speech.
“It can catapult Cobb County to new levels of success,” Lee said. “We can’t just sit on our hands and take the tide of good economic times and the Braves move. We need to strike while the iron is hot.”
Major initiatives in the coming year include drawing up the county’s biannual budget and a new process for doing so that focuses on priority-based budgeting, a system in which the community’s goals are decided upon before the revenue is allotted to accomplish them.
The county will also revise its goals for its comprehensive transportation plan and for its Northwest Corridor transportation assessment.
Holly Bass, who heads Cobb’s tourism division, said she thinks Lee has a lot to talk about because the county is well-positioned for the new year. And she wants to hear more about the Braves.
“There’s a lot to be proud of,” Bass said.
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