Possible County Tax Increase and Service Cuts Coming

A year after the East Cobb and East Marietta libraries opened, the branches could be shut down by the end of the month. 

The Marietta Daily Journal is reporting that all but four library locations in the county would close by May 1 under Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tim Lee’s budget-balancing plan. 

The MDJ says Lee’s proposal to close a deficit in the current fiscal year estimated at more than $31 million would close 13 of 17 libraries countywide, three senior centers, two swimming pools and the Mable House amphitheater, as well as cutting back on other services. Each county department would be asked to cut its budget by 3.5 percent, and the millage rate would rise by 0.5 mil for the fire fund, costing the owner of a $200,000 home $40 a year.

The county commissioners plan to enact a plan Tuesday morning to eliminate the $31 million deficit projected for fiscal 2011, which runs through Sept. 30. Sinking property values, now expected to fall 7 percent on average in this year’s assessments, have produced the budget gap.

The tax increase would defy the consensus the commission reached March 22 after a budget work session, when only West Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham spoke in favor of considering raising taxes.

East Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott held two town-hall meetings on the budget in the past week and a half and did not waver in his opposition to a tax increase.

“What we have to do once again is make sure we are using our assets as efficiently as possible,” Ott said Wednesday night in Smyrna. “You have to look at the cost of the services being provided and are we giving something away, because we just can't afford to do that anymore.”

In both town-hall meetings, Ott floated the idea of alternating opening days for the East Cobb and East Marietta libraries, but he did not talk about closing branches. The Gritters Library in Northeast Cobb is also targeted for closure by Lee.

He said he spent Wednesday going through the budget suggestions submitted by the public, “and by far the most comments are on libraries. I would say generally the comments are that during these hard economic times, it's where people can go look for jobs, get on the Internet. There are a lot of services and I think the board recognizes that.”

Helen Poyer, the director of the Cobb County Public Library System, sent out an e-mail message Thursday to library supporters, urging them to lobby commissioners to protect the libraries.

If the East Cobb and East Marietta branches are closed, the only library location in East Cobb would be the Mountain View Regional Library on Sandy Plains Road. That's one of the four branches that would remain open under Lee's plan, according to Poyer's note. The others are the Central branch in downtown Marietta and regional libraries in South Cobb and West Cobb. 

Ironically, a note on the Cobb library site points out that next week, April 10-16, is National Library Week. 

The East Cobb Senior Center, located near the Mountain View library on Sandy Plains Road, is not on Lee's closure list. 

The board is under no obligation to enact Lee’s plan but needs to take some kind of action on the budget Tuesday.

One option to attack the deficit is to furlough the county’s 4,239 full-time workers, rather than giving each department the option to decide how to cut a certain amount. Each furlough day is worth $671,871 for the general fund, Finance Director James Pehrson said last month.

To put that in perspective, two furlough days would save about the same amount of money as closing the 13 libraries for five months.

Northeast Cobb Patch will cover the Board of Commissioners’ meeting live at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Tell commissioners how you feel about budget cuts. What are your priorities? Send you comments to budgetcomments@cobbcounty.org.

Do you think the county should close the libraries?