Fast Facts: 2023 Budget 

07.18.2023 Special Called Community Huddle: Budget and Millage 

Interactive Diagrams on the Way!

• Schools

• Debt Repayments (Truist Park & Conference Center)

• Tax Commissioner's Office and Employees

• Sheriff's Office and Employees

• County Jail

• Courts, Judges, courthouses and Staff

• Parks & Trails

• Roads, Road Maintenance, ROW Beautification, sidewalks, streetlights

• Libraries

• 911 Services

• Emergency and Disaster Relief

• Police Department

• Fire Department

• Water/Sewer Agency, sinkholes, water treatment

• Elections

• Code Enforcement

• County Legal Matters

• Zoning & Planning analysis

• Economic Development

• Cybersecurity, Call Lines

• Senior Services Agency

• SPLOSTS: Roads, New Buildings/Facilities, Safety Equipment

• Contingency (Savings on net costs, minimum contingency)

• Competitiveness/ Recruitment

  • Nearby counties and cities compete for the same talent pool. There is also competitiveness with the private sector given the removal of many government benefits such as the pension. There is also an overall decrease in the talent available for specific industries such as public safety. Commissioner Richardson believes we can improve competitiveness and retention through providing a more inclusive and dynamic culture, more significant benefits and increasing base salaries.

  • Impacted areas: Department of Transportation, Water Agency

• Retention

  • While Cobb County struggles with recruitment, the greatest impact is retention. We have a fantastic county with top notch services and training. That being said, many will join the county, gain the experience, and then go to another government jurisdiction that pays significantly more. Not being the retain talent can be very expensive. These are known as turnover costs. Turnover cost is monetarily expensive due to training and onboarding time, but also in loss of knowledge. Our more senior members of staff are still with the office due to the old benefits system, but there will be a day where retirements become frequent, and we will be left with little to no middle-management. Some department have loss upwards of 400 years of experience this year alone. Retention is also impacted by a phenomenon known as "compression". Compression is when the base salaries are increased and there is no relatively proportional increase in other layers of employment, or even a mis-match within a layer of employment. Note: employees occupy a "rank" within their respective organizations. 

  • Impacted areas: Elections, Public Safety (all), PARKS, Water Agency

• Capacity/ Vacancies

  • High turnover and low competitiveness lend to unpredictable capacity issues, and a high number of vacancies. By solving both, we can improve this issue and ensure we are delivering the same quality without over-expending our current personnel and create more predictable funding models by preventing over time. Service areas lacking in capacity can result in a decrease in service quality and/or managerial decisions that reduce overall safety according to best practices in a service delivery model. Example: combining radio lines for a front line worker.

  • Impacted areas: Department of Transportation, Water Agency, 911 Services

• Sustainability

  • Budget sustainability is a complex goal as there are many limitations to government accounts on what available monies can be spent on. We know that over the course of time, costs increase and there are also cycles within the market. If we are to maintain a high level of service and relatively low taxes, we will need to be deliberate in how the budget is structured from both a sourcing and long term planning perspective. Certainly terms introduce difficulties in such planning, but the general notion should boil down to: capital expenses need to factor operational expenses over the life of the purchase. Finding the appropriate balance and leveraging capital expense budgets accordingly, and advocated for diversified funding structures will help relieve residents and future boards from being in untenable positions regardless of economic cycles.

• Industry Changes

  • Internally, competition for talent is very high. It does not help that within certain industries like public safety, the talent pool is shrinking due to many leaving the profession. Commissioner Richardson believes the best way to approach solving this involves: branding, accountability, safety nets,  and standardization will help reduce these external constraints. We must be mindful of this impact, however, as it is a sure fire way to drive costs in ways that are burdensome to taxpayers 

• Proactive Service Capability

  • While Cobb's level of service is very high, there are some cascading impacts due to an inability and lack of capacity to be more proactive in providing certain services. Examples include: stormwater management, code enforcement, and building maintenance. Commissioner Richardson believes this can be solved with an increased operational jurisdiction for systemic reviews and proper capital investments that increase automation and transparency and reduce long term operational costs.

• Capital Improvement Maintenance

  • For decades, Cobb County has underinvested in its capital improvements projects. This leads to larger costs in both technology and facility maintenance. By adequately funding such necessities, we can keep costs predictable and reduce costly liabilities related to tech or structure failures.