A seemingly simple budget vote was anything but that in Cobb County with one commissioner opposed to the county’s financial planning.
Commissioner Bob Ott cast the lone dissenting votes Tuesday against the county’s $723 million budget and a 6 percent water and 2 percent sewer rate increase. Ott’s no votes were tied to a lack of transparency and the commission’s failure to make structural changes to the county’s spending practices, he said.
Last year and in April, with the county facing double-digit deficits, commissioners talked of setting spending priorities and shared sacrifices for all agencies. Some cost-cutting solutions were included in the budget. Ultimately, commissioners passed a 15.7 percent tax increase in July to help close the budget gap. Commission Chairman Tim Lee has said the budget decisions are stopping points along the way as the county continues its financial housekeeping and completes a strategic plan.
“It appears that all we did with this budget was continue what we had been doing, because we solved the deficit problems with a [property tax] increase and didn’t make the changes that we said we needed to make last year,” Ott said.
Also at issue for Ott is Cobb’s longtime annual practice of transferring 10 percent of the water system revenues for the previous year to the county’s general fund, which pays for most of the county’s expenses.
For the fiscal 2012 budget, which begins Oct. 1, the transfer amount is $19.6 million, according to Jim Pehrson, Cobb’s finance director. Without the annual transfers to the general fund, the water system could avoid rate increases until 2018, including the increase approved Tuesday, said water system director Stephen McCueller.
“So passing on that increase, to me, that is a hidden tax,” Ott said.
Without the water transfer to make up for it, commissioners would have to make cuts or find another revenue source, possibly a larger tax increase, to cover the gap, Pehrson said.
Fine, Ott said. “We need to come up with a plan to acknowledge that is exactly what’s happening and be clear about it with taxpayers, or adjust the budget.”
Lee has heard Ott's concerns before and is willing to evaluate the transfers down the road.
"If you're a water customer you will pay one way or the other," Lee said. "[The transfers] are allowed and done in many other areas. It's just another source for funding the general fund."
The water and sewer increases take effect Jan. 1, and are expected to increase residential customer bills between 1 percent and 2.4 percent, or up to around $1.41 per month, depending on usage.
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