The 2017 Cobb County budget was approved 4-1 Tuesday amid boos from the audience who wanted money included in the budget to buy new parks.
Voting against the budget, Commissioner Lisa Cupid said the millage rollback in July from 6.83 to 6.66 was “politically motivated” and not needed so that the budget could have included funding for park purchases.
While voting for the budget, Commissioner JoAnn Birrell acknowledged that many items were not included such as Sunday bus service, a new deputy county manager, privatization of right-of-way mowing, police body cameras and new parks.
Commending Commission Chairman Tim Lee on this continuation budget, Commissioner Bob Ott said a 51 percent increase in property taxes would be needed to meet all of the requests.
The 2017 budget is an increase of $14.4 million due to debt service on the SunTrust Park bonds instead of $100,00 this year for the debt service on bonds.
Contingency is proposed to increase from $9,004,675 to $9,733,562.
Consisting of 17 operating budgets, the overall 2017 budget is proposed to increase by 8.7 percent to $857,968,275 from this year’s $789,165,502.
The budget year is Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 annually.
Information: CobbCounty.org/images/documents/boc/FY_2017_Budget_Presentation.pdf.
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