Around 120,000 Cobb residents will see a rate reduction in their monthly street light charges and a five-month suspension of fees.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners decided 5-0 Feb. 27 to reduce the monthly rate from $4 to $3.80, beginning Dec. 1, and suspend the $4 monthly fee for the street light service charge for five months from July 1 to Dec. 1.
Also, the commissioners will use $2.4 million from the $3.6 million fund balance to pay for operations during the suspension period.
This action will draw down accumulated funds collected in previous years to an appropriate level over the required 10 percent reserve balance.
The adjusted rates, after the five-month fee collection suspension, are expected to adequately fund the Street Light District activities.
Currently, there are about 3,400 street light districts in Cobb comprised of around 120,000 customers.
In 2014, the commissioners established a policy requiring the SLD Fund to achieve and maintain a fund balance reserve equal to 10 percent of its most recent annual adopted budget and set three years for this objective to be reached of about $600,000.
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