Budget Deficit Disappears for Cobb Schools

About a year ago,  Chief Financial Officer Mike Addison delivered the painful news that 734 positions needed to be cut to eliminate a $137 million budget deficit.

But after three years of cuts, and despite warning last month of a possible deficit of $40 million to $50 million, Addison likely won’t be the bearer of bad news this year.

Addison was all smiles Wednesday as he told the Cobb Board of Education that he anticipates presenting a “balanced budget without a shortfall” in June for fiscal 2012, which starts July 1.

“As we’ve gotten more information, we’ve revised our estimates, and we’re not going to have a $50 million budget shortfall,” Addison said. “It’s absolutely a very good feeling to not have to be searching for more areas to cut. But we are going to have to maintain the cuts we’ve already made. We just don’t have to make new ones.”

A combination of factors changed the financial story. The state’s net revenue collections in February increased $148 million from February 2010 to $715.3 million, a jump of 9.2 percent.

Addison said actual state revenue collections are tracking higher than the Cobb school system budgeted. Not having to account for an anticipated $27 million cut in state austerity funds contributed to the higher tracking collections.

Another factor is that Cobb County's property digest, the basis for property tax collections, is not declining as much as expected, according to the Cobb County Tax Assessor’s Office, which will issue final numbers in June. The assessor now projects a 7 percent dip in the digest, compared with a 9.5 percent fall previously predicted. That improvement also helped Cobb County this week.

Addison also gained optimism from increased state collections of $95 million in individual income taxes, $33 million in sales and use taxes, and $9 million in corporate income taxes.

Addison told the board he will submit a budget based on 20 mills. But in an earlier debate about the millage rate, Superintendent Fred Sanderson said he intended to recommend a 2012 budget at 20 mills with the board’s option to use excess SPLOST money to roll back the rate to 18.9 mills. The rollback would be worth approximately $22 million, Addison said.

Board member David Banks of Post 5 (,  and  high schools) said the rollback maneuver, which the district also used last year, could help preserve jobs. Without it, the district would have to make cuts to avoid raising the millage rate.

At the April 28 meeting Addison plans to discuss how his previous shortfall projections have changed.

In other action during a seven-hour work session:

• The board placed 13 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax items on the April 28 meeting agenda, either as consent or discussion items. Ten involve additions, modifications or preliminary work at , ,, ,  and  elementary schools, , and ,  and  high schools. The combined cost of the projects is $29.1 million, SPLOST Chief Administrative Officer Doug Shepard said.
• The board placed five other items on the April 28 consent agenda, including constructing stadium seating at  for $400,000. Board member Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, whose Post 1 serves Allatoona, said the seating is much needed. The Allatoona Buccaneer Touchdown Club Inc.and local school cell tower funds will pay for the project.
• Banks named former board member John Crooks to the community Facilities & Technology Committee to replace Chuck Casto, whom he appointed this year and who was serving as the committee’s chairman. Casto is working in Japan on the nuclear disaster and likely will be there the rest of the year, Banks said. Casto also lost a seat on the new county Citizens Oversight Committee because of his work in Japan. The F&T Committee will hold an election to name a new chairman.
• Steve D. Barnette was named the district’s director of accounting services and financial services, Chief Human Resources Officer Donald Dunnigan announced. The move, along with the personnel report, passed 6-0 and moved to the next meeting’s consent agenda.
• In the meeting’s only action item, the board voted 6-0 to approve charter amendments at .
• The school board had two executive sessions Wednesday, one of 45 minutes and the second of about two hours. The board plans two executive sessions relating to the superintendent search—9 a.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7 () said in February that she hoped to announce the three finalists for the position in April.