Water customers told the money
“dedicated” to public safety, 12/12/15
About
173,000 Cobb County water customers received an unusual message on their
November bills — the county government will skim 10 percent of water department
revenues next year and dedicate the money to public safety.
The
$20 million transfer is nothing new in Cobb County, which has been using water
revenues to bolster its general fund budget since at least 1998. But this is
the first time that customers have been notified about the practice on bills,
and the first time the county has claimed the money is dedicated for a specific
purpose.
Critics
call the transfers a hidden tax, because they are often accompanied by a
corresponding water-rate increases. And they say this year’s message is
misleading because the water cash is poured into the general fund, along with
property taxes and other revenues, which are used to pay for a wide array of
county operations.
In
addition, next year’s transfer is double the amount of new spending for the
police department approved in the fiscal 2016 budget, which also funds a
property tax rate reduction — fulfilling a political promise made by Commission
Chairman Tim Lee, who is up for re-election next year.
“The
entire water system message and content has the demeanor of performing a shady
sleight-of-hand trick or even a deception by raising additional revenues to
help run our county without requiring a tax increase,” said Joe O’Connor, a
retired Marietta business owner and marine, who has served as an advisor and
coordinator in many local, state and national political campaigns. “Shouldn’t
all of our county taxes and operating revenues be transparent and only result
from true and legitimate millage rates?”
Commission
Chairman Tim Lee said in an open letter emailed to residents Dec. 3 that he is
“confident” the actual amount of the transfer will be less than the budgeted 10
percent. He said the message on bills is part of the county’s “ongoing
commitment to enhance transparency.”
The
transfer “will help fully fund a multi-year public safety plan unanimously
adopted by the Board of Commissioners in 2014,” the email says.
The
county had been on a path to slowly ween itself off water money, reducing the
transfers by one percentage point over each of the past three years. This
year’s transfer was 7 percent, or $14 million.
Snapping
the transfer back to 10 percent was a major reason Commissioner Bob Ott voted
against the budget. He said the message claiming the money will be used for
public safety is “political cover.”
The
message “is misleading because it makes it sound like all the money is going to
public safety, which isn’t true,” Ott said. “I’m philosophically opposed to
[the transfers] because you’re taking a commodity — water, something people
can’t do without — and using the money for something other than water.”
Commissioner
Lisa Cupid also voted against the budget and said she is uncomfortable with the
transfers because they “disguise the true cost of water.” But Cupid said the
message as political cover isn’t very effective.
“I
don’t know that it sends the most positive political message,” Cupid said. “Who
wants to hear that their money for water is going to support something
unrelated to water, when water is an essential resource that people struggle to
pay for as indicated by the number of cutoffs each month.”
Commissioner
JoAnn Birrell has fought for elimination of the water transfer, but voted in
favor of the budget in exchange for the message being placed on bills. Birrell,
who would only answer the newspaper’s questions through email, helped write the
message on bills saying the water money is dedicated to public safety,
according to emails between her office and Water Director Steve McCullers.
In
an email exchange with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Birrell acknowledged
that the transfer “goes into the general fund for all departments,” and said
the transfer is “legal.” She told the newspaper that the message on bills is
appropriate since next year’s proposed transfer is an increase over the
previous year.
“Going
back to 10 percent for the 2016 budget is a three-percent” increase over this
year, Birrell wrote to the AJC. “That is the portion that was to help fund
public safety.”
But
that’s not what the message says: “Up to 10 percent of the water system’s
revenue may be transferred to Cobb County’s General Fund. For the 2016 budget,
this amount is dedicated to help fund public safety.”
McCullers
wrote a four-page memo to commissioners Sept. 15 saying the agency could get by
next year without rate increases because of its large reserves. But he
recommended against it. “It is unfortunate that budgetary pressures have
resulted in the need to return the water transfer to its maximum level,” the
memo says.
“While
it is true that we can get through 2016 with an increase in the water transfer
and a minimal rate increase by drawing down reserves, significant increases
will be required in future years to continue the transfer at a 10-percent
level, offset the annual 4 percent increase from the Water Authority, fund a
quality capital program (including storm water), and address operating cost
increases.”
Lee’s
email to residents calls water transfers “common” in Georgia and provides
examples of other municipalities that have similar policies. There is one other
county on Lee’s list — Macon-Bibb County, which transferred $163,000 this year.
There are also six cities on the list, half of which had relatively small
transfers that amounted to less than 2.5 percent of their general fund budgets.
What’s
more common in Metro Atlanta counties is transferring watershed revenue to
cover the cost of services provided by the county, things such as payroll,
fleet maintenance and human resources. Gwinnett, Fulton and DeKalb counties all
practice that policy.
Lee’s
email, which was sent before this article was written but after the newspaper
requested emails and other information about the transfers, accuses the AJC of
“false assertions and ongoing, ridiculous conspiracy theories.”
“Despite
the AJC’s anti-suburban bias, Team Cobb will continue to work hard to provide
the best services at the best possible value to Cobb County taxpayers,” the
email says.
The
county spokeswoman answered on behalf of McCullers when the AJC asked how long
the message would be printed on bills. “As long as necessary to fully inform
the public,” she wrote in an email.
About
the Cobb County Water System:
The
system provides retail water and wastewater services to unincorporated Cobb
County and the cities of Acworth and Kennesaw; wastewater collection and
treatment services to the all of the county and portions of Fulton; and
stormwater management services to unincorporated Cobb. The transfer of money to
the county’s General Fund is restricted by bond covenants to 10 percent.
Monthly water and sewer fees make up 83.5 percent of water system revenues. The
average residential water bill is about $52 month; commercial users pay about
$104 a month for 10,000 gallons. - Source: Cobb County
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/cobb-county-skimming-20-million-from-water-revenue/nphQN/
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