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The July 25, 2017 Board of Commissioners Meeting: a Great Game-Changer for Park Bond 2008 & Braves Financing

7/28/2017

The Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 was a positive game-changer for the 2008 Park Bond and for the Braves Stadium financing plan.

1. The millage rate approved by the Board of Commissioners respected Park Bond 2008 funding without a tax increase.

2. The BoC restructured how the Braves stadium bond will be financed with the millage rate, so it can no longer be asserted that Cobb County is using all the Park Bond funds for the Stadium Bond.

Thank you for your efforts to email, call and encourage the county to do the right thing with the $40 million Park Bond Cobb citizens voted for and overwhelmingly approved on November 4, 2008. Your actions made a difference!

Chairman Boyce has championed the Park Bond voter-approved referendum that 2 previous Chairmen and the Board of Commissions neglected to fund for over 8 years. We thank Chairman Boyce and the current Board of Commissioners for the July 25 meeting results. Chairman Boyce and other Commissioners have promised to fund the remainder of the Park Bond in a future budget, which is also possible without a tax increase simply by a continuation of the millage already available.

The Finer Details: On July 25, 2017, the Board of Commissioners decided to shift only a portion (.1 mills instead of .23 mills) of the Debt Service Fund millage toward the Braves stadium bond and fund the remainder from a diffferent source in the budget.

Also at the July 25 meeting, $27.5 of the $40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum was officially funded from the remaining millage of the Debt Service Fund (.13 mills), without a tax increase, and without shifting all the millage to the Braves stadium bond as had been planned since 2013 in the Cobb County - Braves stadium finance plan. That plan would have used the entire millage rate of the Debt Service Fund as one of the funding sources for the $400 million Stadium Bond, but before using a portion of that millage to fund the $40 million Park Bond as intended since 2008.

To summarize, millage will stay for Park Bond 2008 funding as planned since 2008, when voters approved $40 million to preserve land as parks in our beautiful county.

You can listen to the amazing Park Bond supporters at the July 25 meeting here.

News Stories on the Cobb adopting the same millage rate & Park Bond 2008 funding:

WSB TV: Cobb County commissioners vote down proposed tax hike

MDJ: Cobb commissioners reverse course, keep millage rate the same

AJC: No property tax rate increase for Cobb County

ECN: BREAKING NEWS: Cobb commissioners hold line on 2017 property tax millage rate

ECN: Cobb Parks Coalition: Fulfilling 2008 bond referendum doesn’t require tax increase

MP: Commission Votes To Keep Property Tax Rate The Same In Cobb

AJC: An easy guide to Cobb 2017 property taxes

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Park Bond 2008 Funding IS Possible Without Raising Taxes + Q&A

7/21/2017

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On Tuesday, July 25 at 7pm the Board of Commissioners will decide whether or not to increase the millage rate. Recent news articles have quoted the Board of Commissioners as saying the reason for the increase is to pay for the 2008 Park Bond Referendum. However, Park Bond 2008 can be fully funded without any increase in taxes for property owners if the county will simply honor the voter referendum with the existing millage available, or if the Board restores the exact millage for the Park Bond shifted into the Braves Stadium Bond this year. Cobb Citizens continue to email and ask that the entire $40 million referendum be funded, and it's clear this has always been possible without raising taxes.

For the past 8 years the county has delayed, denied and then actually diverted the exact millage funds intended to fulfill the 2008 Park Bond voter referendum into the Braves Stadium Bond. There may be challenges in the county budget; however, to point to Park Bond 2008 as the root cause of a millage increase in 2017 is misleading and doesn't make any sense given the millage rate history.

We can appreciate that Park Bond 2008 is now partially funded 8 years after 67% of Cobb voters approved the Referendum. In April 2017, Cobb County issued $27.5 million of the $40 million voters approved, so today only $12.5 million more is required to fulfill this mandate. (see below for the 2 ways the Board has always planned to fund Park Bond 2008 without raising the millage rate or taxes.)

However, out of respect for the 67% of voters who approved Park Bond 2008 Referendum but haven't seen the millage used as it was intended, Park Bond 2008 should not be stated as the cause of any millage rate increase in 2017.

Cobb County Millage Rates 2007-2016 (click for larger image)

These 2 ways to fully fund Park Bond 2008 do not involve raising the millage rate. Each plan is explained below, but of course the Board has many other options to fund the $40 million referendum.

1. The original plan in 2008 was to move some millage from the Fire Fund into the Debt Service Fund to repay Park Bond 2008. The Fire Fund millage can be transferred without any interruption to Public Safety funding needs.

2. Another option involves restoring the exact Debt Service Fund millage that was diverted to the Braves Stadium Bond back into the Debt Service Fund to repay Park Bond 2008.

Video on the Millage Rate Increase Proposal: Start around minute 4:00 to see the explanation of the .23 millage rate transfer intended for Park Bond 2008 into the new Braves Stadium Bond.

Send an Email to the Cobb Board of Commissioners before 7PM on July 25, 2017: No Tax Increase Needed to Fully Fund the $40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum

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To the Cobb County Board of Commissioners: *

* Voters approved Park Bond 2008, and it must be fully funded. Although $27.5 million of the $40 million Park Bond Referendum has been funded, we continue to ask that you fund the other $12.5 million to fulfill the voter-approved Park Bond referendum mandate.

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Additional Q&A

Q: Was Park Bond 2008 funded by the millage rate set 2008-2016?

A: It is true the county collected millage (property taxes) intended to repay Park Bond 2008, but the Board of Commissioners under Chairman Olens and Chairman Lee chose not to issue the money for it, despite that the availability of the funds, and the critical need for parks & greenspace listed in every Cobb long-range plan. In fact, over 6,000 acres are needed to achieve Cobb’s greenspace goals, and $40 million Park Bond 2008 will help purchase only a few hundred acres.

Q: If property tax money was already collected for Park Bond 2008 from the millage, what happened to those funds?

A: The collected property taxes from previous millage rates were spent on repaying the 2006 Park Bond 2 years earlier than planned. In other words, the property taxes were collected but applied to another debt. However, there is a “multi-million balance” in the Debt Service Fund not yet applied to Park Bond 2008. We have asked but not received confirmation about what happened to those funds when the millage rate intended for Park Bond 2008 was shifted into the Braves Stadium Bond in the 2017 budget. The Debt Service Fund balance should be applied to Park Bond 2008, which will lower the overall cost for any future millage rates.

Here's an overview of the millage rate related to Park Bond 2008:

It's clear that the proposed 2017 millage tax increase is not due to the Park Bond, because the millage intended for Park Bond 2008 has been directly diverted into the Braves (See video above about the shifted .23 mills).
In July 2016, the previous Board with Chairman Lee lowered the Debt Service Fund intended for Park Bond 2008 by .1 mills.
So in just the last year, a combined total of .33 mills available for quick & easy Park Bond 2008 funding has been lost despite 8 years of waiting, asking, encouraging, and petitioning the Board of Commissioners to do the right thing as voters approved by referendum.
All this happened as many properties selected by the Park Bond Cobb Citizen Advisory Committees have been developed and paved over, rather than preserved as green parks as Park Bond 2008 funding would accomplish.

Summary of key Park Bond 2008 funding events:

In 2008, 67% of Cobb voters approved $40 million Park Bond 2008 by referendum. Funding was planned by moving .1 mills of the nearly 2.56 mills from the Fire Fund. (NOTE: Currently the Fire Fund has 2.96 millage, and a $40 million balance, so moving .1 mills is still the simplest solution and would leave 2.86 mills, which equals more than $80 million a year.)
In 2009, Chairman Olens said Park Bond 2008 would be delayed due to the economy.
In 2013, the Board of Commissioners under Chairman Lee announced the exact millage rate set for repayment of the Park Bond 2008 would be directly “shifted” to pay for part of the Braves Stadium bond, but without funding the 2008 Park Bond first.
Once it was known that the Park Bond millage rates would be "shifted" into the Braves Stadium Bond, we knew the "economy" was not the issue anymore. So concerned citizens started petitioning the Board of Commissioners to fund Park Bond 2008 as voters approved, before moving the millage into any other project. Note: The Cobb Parks Coalition has nothing against the Braves; rather our goal is to ensure the democratically elected Park Bond 2008 is fully funded as voters approved, before the millage intended for parks is shifted into any other project.
In January 2016, Chairman Lee said he would consider issuing the Park Bond after a coalition of concerned citizens in every district of Cobb focused on one central mission: To achieve full funding of the $40 million Cobb County Parks Bond Referendum approved by voters in 2008 for the acquisition of park land.
In July 2016, Chairman Lee and the Board surprisingly reduced the Debt Service Fund by .1 mills & the Fire Fund by .1 mills, thereby removing the 2 most viable options for Park Bond 2008 funding, already available in the millage rate since 2008!
This .2 mills reduction of the millage was taken despite a multi-year campaign of literally thousands of emails, calls, and a committed group of citizens speaking at every Board of Commissioners meetings.
In July 2016, Chairman Boyce won his campaign against Chairman Lee by the same 2/3 majority of citizens that voted for Park Bond 2008.
In 2016, Chairman Boyce campaigned on the Park Bond issue (as well as other important issues). Greenspace acquisition resonates with voters due to the unprecedented growth in Cobb that has not stopped to preserve some historically and environmentally significant properties as mapped out in every long-range Cobb plan.
In April 2017, Chairman Boyce and the Board issued $27.5 million of the $40 million voters approved, so today only $12.5 million more is required to fulfill this voter-approved mandate.

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The July 25, 2017 Board of Commissioners Meeting: a Great Game-Changer for Park Bond 2008 & Braves Financing

Park Bond 2008 Funding IS Possible Without Raising Taxes + Q&A

Send an Email to the Cobb Board of Commissioners before 7PM on July 25, 2017: No Tax Increase Needed to Fully Fund the $40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum

Cobb Parks Coalition Blog

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The July 25, 2017 Board of Commissioners Meeting: a Great Game-Changer for Park Bond 2008 & Braves Financing

Park Bond 2008 Funding IS Possible Without Raising Taxes + Q&A

Send an Email to the Cobb Board of Commissioners before 7PM on July 25, 2017: ​No Tax Increase Needed to Fully Fund the ​$40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum

Cobb Parks Coalition Blog

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Send an Email to the Cobb Board of Commissioners before 7PM on July 25, 2017: No Tax Increase Needed to Fully Fund the $40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum