July 16, 2011

Hello Patriot Friends,
 

Contact your Cobb County Commissioner about the proposed property tax millage rate increase, which will be voted on by the Commission on July 26^th. 

Cobb Commission Chairman, Tim Lee is proposing a millage rate increase for all Cobb County property owners.  If you look at historical millage rates for the past several years that are posted on the County’s own website, you will see that they have consistently been 9.6 mills.  The increase will take this up to 11.2 mills, a pretty hefty hike. 

Chairman Lee claims this is necessary to fill a $35 million dollar deficit in the 2012 County budget.   They view a tax hike as if it were the only alternative, when in fact they know there are several others that could eliminate the $35 million shortfall by reducing costs instead of raising taxes.  One example is to remove funding of some 800 unfilled employee positions.  If they have not been filled, they must not be essential and removing their funding from the budget, alone would save $4 million.

The Citizen Oversight Committee that was impaneled by Commissioner Lee at the insistence of Commissioner Bob Ott has been at work for five months to find areas where cost savings can be made.  They filed a progress report on June 28^th, and will quantify their findings in a report to be published in August. 

Commissioner Lee has minimized the value of their work and has virtually ignored it; therefore, the Commission will be voting on a tax increase before they have all the information necessary to make such a decision.  It appears that the two staunch supporters of the tax increase, Chairman Lee and District 1 Commissioner Helen Goreham are dead set on a tax increase regardless of how much savings can be effected. 

At the moment District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott and District 4 Commissioner Woody Thompson are set to vote against the increase.  That makes District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell the swing vote, but she is leaning toward support of it.   

This tax hike proposal is premature and ill-considered, but will be imposed on us if we don’t act now.   Email your district commissioner and tell him/her what you think – just Ctrl-click on your commissioner’s name above to send your message.  If you don’t know who your commissioner is, see the district map on the Cobb County website

There will be two public comment sessions on July 19. The first is at 8:00 a.m. the second at 6:00 p.m. at Building 100 on the Northeast corner of the Marietta Square.  Please try to attend even if you don’t plan to make a comment.  There is strength in numbers.

Yours in liberty,

The Georgia Tea Party

UPCOMING EVENTS

Volunteer Meeting are held at 900 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA
(Old Chevy car dealership building to the east of Roswell St. Baptist Church)

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events and check our Event Calendar for updates. 

Georgia Tea Party^TM Board of Directors

Patti Gettinger
Bill Hudson
Jim Jess
Mark Lane
Tom Maloy
Field Searcy
Sue Stanton
JD Van Brink
Michael Williams