The Cobb County Board of Commissioners held its third and final public hearing on the proposed FY2027 budget and millage rates, followed by votes and additional public comments. The meeting included adoption of the millage rates and budget, as well as consent agenda items and a regular agenda item regarding an autonomous vehicle circulator pilot project.
Yes, sir. Good evening and welcome to today's Board of Commissioners meeting this July 28th, 2026. I'm pleased today that we have Father Papa Giorgio with Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church. He will be providing our invocate, and that will be followed by the pledge, which will be brought by Officer Williams. For those of you both willing and able, please stand for both our invocation and our pledge. Thanks. Come and dwell in us and classes from every stain and save ourselves a good one. We offer thanksgiving to you, Lord, for all your gifts and blessings. We humbly come to you and us that you may send upon us. You have a spirit to enlighten our hearts and minds. Give us of your wisdom and knowledge. Help us to know your will for your people whom we serve. Guide us in all our decisions to do what is best for them. Help us to shine with your love and compassion. Grant us your peace and your love. Have a good meeting. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States. And so we just see it. Well, we wish you the very best in the next chapter. Yes, and thank you for blessing us with your invocation over the years. Good evening, Chairwoman Commissioners, County Manager. Uh appreciate your time today. Uh as you were stating, we do have two public hearings today. The first will be with respect to the millage rate, and then the second public hearing will be with respect to the proposed 2027 budget, both of which will be followed by a vote in adoption of both of those items immediately following those public hearings. And today is our third and final public hearing. As you can see, we have the general fund remaining uh steady at 8.46 mills, the fire fund at 2.97 mills, and the Cumberland Special Service District 2 at 2.45 mills. And again, this board is no longer responsible for the six flag special service district millage, so that is at uh zero mills. On the bottom, you'll see a bar graph just so everyone here knows the net digest between 25 and 26 grew uh at 5.06 percent. And to break down that growth uh a little more granularly, we have uh, as you can see at the bottom, the gross digest, which is that three billion dollar number, uh, that grew at 4.99%. Exemptions directly below it grew at 4.8%, and again, the net digest grew at 5.06 percent. One of the biggest boosts in this uh in this digest was the growth in commercial property. It came in at about 7.6 percent growth in 2026. Last year that was at.26 percent uh growth. So again, it was a commercial revaluation year, and we saw uh excess growth in our commercial uh property digest. Now, how all this makes sense on a taxpayer's bill. I want to walk through one moment. I want everyone to know that the gray bars are indicative of the fair market value of a home. This is a real home in Cobb County. In 2018, that home was valued at 200 uh and five thousand dollars. It was reassessed in 2022 to 317,000 dollars. It was once again reassessed in 2024 to 452,000. Now, the one thing I want uh this board to pay attention to and those watching at home is the general fund is the bright or I'm sorry, the dark blue line that is remaining flat. And if I had a laser pointer, I'd point, but it is the one that remains flat. And the reason for that is your property tax bill will remain level from the date you file your floating homestead exemption or uh apply for it, uh, and that is usually at the time of purchase, it sets back one year. So you're essentially locked in, and that means regardless of the growth of your property, even if it goes from 205,000 to 452,000. Is if this board does not touch the millage rate, the general fund portion of your bill for this board of commissioners will not go up on your bill. It will remain at that in this example at $609. If there was no floating homestead on that property, it would go up in proportion to the growth.