Cobb County government uses large budget surplus to boost rainy day fund, secure AAA bond rating (Atlanta: 2013)

[Born 2 Roll]

With an eye toward securing the county's AAA bond rating for years to come, Cobb commissioners signed off this week on a policy intended to shore up its long-term cash reserves.

The county now has a formal goal of maintaining a reserve fund (or "fund balance") of, at the least, 25% of its total general fund budget. For the county's current roughly $497 million budget, that shakes out to just over $124 million in the bank.

The county's required to maintain the reserve fund at 10% of its annual revenues, but Cobb has historically well exceeded that figure. Finance Director Bill Volckmann told the board this week the reserves were "just north of 30 (percent)" during its last bond ratings discussion.

Cobb looks to burnish bond rating with reserve cash policy (Yahoo Finance/Marietta Daily Journal)

Flush with cash, Cobb County boosts rainy day fund requirements (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

[neil0311]

I'm a Cobb resident, and I support having funds in reserve, but if we're consistently bringing in more money than is needed, then a tax cut should be the next step. Give back the money to the people who earned it.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by neil0311

I'm a Cobb resident, and I support having funds in reserve, but if we're consistently bringing in more money than is needed, then a tax cut should be the next step. Give back the money to the people who earned it.

That’s a good point, which generally the government of a historically conservative suburban county like Cobb potentially might have been more willing to act on, particularly in the past when the county’s population was smaller and leaned much more conservative and when the county was much more suburban.

But given that Cobb County now has a much higher and much more socioeconomically diverse population, is much more urban and has somewhat recently experienced financial challenges and struggles after paying to fund the new Braves stadium at Truist Park in 2013-14 but well before the notable economic disruption caused by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, there currently does not appear to be the political will to enact tax cuts at the county government level in Cobb.

Many onlookers, both inside and outside of government, also seem to think (and/or even fear) that the current budget surpluses being experienced in counties like Cobb and in states like Georgia, etc., potentially could be unsustainable, particularly with such factors as employee staffing levels, supply chain disruption and price inflation being issues throughout much of the economy and society as a whole.

Heck, Republican Cobb County District 1 Commissioner Keli Gambrill was intensely advocating for and lobbying the rest of the Cobb County commission board to raise the required reserve fund level to 35% of the county’s general fund budget, 10 percentage points higher than the increase in reserves from 10% to 25% of the annual general fund budget that the now Democrat-controlled board approved.

[LTCM]

How about they build all those parks they promised us.

Disgraceful leadership. Do what you promised.