Tuesday is decision day for Cobb County.
Commissioners will decide whether to increase the county’s millage rate by 16.8 percent to help make up for a declining tax digest. Like other counties, Cobb’s tax revenue has been slowed by the recession and a still-sagging housing market. But unlike some other counties in the metro area, Cobb has weathered the financial downturn without raising taxes, choosing instead to balance its budgets and close double-digit deficits with employee furloughs, service reductions and fine and fee increases.
Until now.
“We have gotten to the point finally where there is nothing left to cut,” Commission Chairman Tim Lee said.
Reaction on both sides of the issue has been emphatic. Opposition has risen from residents who are unwillingly to pay more in taxes and upset at some of the spending choices taken by the county. But also being heard are residents willing to pay more in taxes to maintain the quality of life that have become strong selling points for the metro area’s fourth most populous county.
In Sunday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at how Cobb is approaching its first possible tax increase in five years. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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