Cobb County is formalizing some of its economic development procedures and putting in writing how tax incentives are considered between the county, its development authority and the tax assessors board.
County officials had been criticized last year for Cobb’s murky economic development policies that kept hidden information on the tax breaks offered to lure companies to the county, as well as who made the decisions.
The policies -- released by Commission Chairman Tim Lee on Wednesday -- take effect immediately and require the county to share its assessment with the development authority of whether a company should be granted a tax break and for how much. In the past, the county’s economic development office, which can offer thousands of dollars in incentives, would do an assessment of the tax credits, but wouldn’t always share the evaluation with the authority, which can offer larger incentives and property tax abatements to companies.
“When I got in office and we started to go through a couple of the incentives that were being offered, there wasn’t anything written down that codified the practice that was being utilized,” Lee said.
The written procedures follow policy changes already pushed into place by some county commissioners and development authority members, such as:
- Having the district commissioner review an incentive offer for a company considering his or her area. Only the chairman had been involved in the process previously.
- Providing information early to authority members about the tax breaks the board offered businesses. The authority had previously granted the incentives without knowing the amount.
The county’s tax assessors board also put in place a policy for granting the tax breaks, a change from the previous method of handling each application individually.
The county's economic development office is also required to provide an annual report on the incentives it has offered prospective companies. Those policy updates are included in the written guidelines Lee released this week.
"The government has gotten a little tighter in making sure the public is protected," he said.
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