Candidates for County Chair on Taxes, Spending and Infrastructure

AUSTELL — It was a civil outing at Grace City Church Thursday for the first forum featuring all three candidates for chair of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners.

Incumbent Lisa Cupid, a Democrat, Shelia Edwards, her primary challenger, and Republican Kay Morgan, who is running unopposed in the May 21 primary, fielded questions from moderator Nichola Hines, president of the League of Women Voters Georgia.

Commission chair candidates shared their personal stories, as well as their positions on some of the big issues facing Cobb.

The forum also featured the two Democratic Cobb tax commissioner candidates — incumbent Carla Jackson and challenger Jan Becker.

The three candidates for county chairwoman avoided personal attacks at the forum. Hines warned from the start that any attacks on each other or other politicians would draw a warning the first time, and a freezing out of the questions for the remainder of the program the second time.

However, Edwards and Morgan offered critiques that were clearly a rebuke of Cupid’s record, without directing their responses right at her.

In fact, both struck similar tones throughout the forum, decrying what they view as rampant spending by the county, opposing the controversial stormwater fee proposal from the Cupid administration and calling for a partnership with Gov. Brian Kemp on economic development.

Cupid, responding to a question about challenges facing the county’s efforts at improving infrastructure, said the stormwater fee proposal was an attempt to account for the county’s growth accompanied by lagging infrastructure improvements in that area.

“We boast having the lowest tax rate in the metro area, but it comes at a price ... of not maintaining the regular things that we ought to be maintaining well,” Cupid said.

She added it’s easy for people to critique how the county funds infrastructure improvements when they are not the ones budgeting for them.

Yet the backorders that have piled up over the years, and the charge to be responsible stewards of county funds, necessitate finding ways to fund those improvements, hence the stormwater fee proposal, which was not first thought up by Cupid, she noted, but has been a conversation in the county since Sam Olens was chairman.

“It has not been implemented yet because of the concern about backlash,” Cupid said.

Edwards said she has concerns about more taxes being placed on Cobb citizens.

“I do not support that because I think the county needs to tighten its belt before it asks the community to do more,” Edwards said.

There was one moment during Edwards’ response where she mentioned Commissioner Keli Gambrill in connection to the stormwater fee, at which point Hines interrupted to warn her about discussing other politicians’ stances.

“I’m not running against a candidate, I’m running against a record, and if I can’t talk about that record, then we’re stymied tonight,” Edwards said.

Morgan, also arguing against more taxes, took a different tack than Edwards. She acknowledged the need for road and stormwater improvements.

“So why are we proposing billions for buses, when nationwide, ridership is down in every major city by more than 50%?” Morgan said, targeting Cupid’s proposed 30-year transit tax that could be on voters’ ballots come November.

While bus ridership in some major cities rebounded after a decline during the COVID pandemic, the CobbLinc bus system’s ridership declined by 73% from 2013 to 2022, as the MDJ previously reported.

“Taxes, inflation, they’ve all soared recently,” Morgan said. “Guys, we can’t take one more rock in our backpack. We need some relief here.”

Throughout the rest of the forum, Morgan and Edwards continued to lean on their opposition to more spending in the county — “we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem,” Morgan said at one point — while Cupid painted herself as the experienced candidate — one who understands the complexities of budget negotiations and has gotten the job done before.

Following the forum, Kobe Marshall, a local real estate agent, said he appreciated the diverse opinions offered by the candidates about the path forward for Cobb.

Marshall said in particular, calls for lower taxes and more affordable housing were the discussion points that most intrigued him during the forum. As of now, he plans to support Edwards in the primary.

He cited her past experience as a district director for U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, and her interest in bringing more affordable housing to Cobb as a couple of reasons why.

“Also her thing with unnecessary spending was a very big thing, because you can do great service without spending as much,” Marshall said.

Andrea Clark, from Acworth, said she previously voted for Cupid in 2020, and while she has not decided yet who she will support in the May 21 primary, she liked what she heard from the incumbent.

“She did a great job with her platform, presenting her platform,” Clark said. “I think the race is going to be tight, but very interesting.”

Pam Reardon, a Realtor like Morgan, is running as the lone Republican for the District 2 seat on the Cobb Board of Commissioners. There is no doubt she is supporting Morgan in May and again in November, she told the MDJ after the forum.

Asked if she thought Morgan had a real shot at beating Cupid come November in a county that has turned blue over the last several election cycles, Reardon said it depends on how people feel about politics nationally.

“It depends how mad people are with Biden and the economy,” Reardon said. “Inflation, people are hurting, they can’t buy their groceries, it stems from printing money, and that’s what they’ve been doing, printing money, spending money. And then you see what we do in this county: spend, spend, spend.”

The forum was sponsored by the Cobb Democracy Center, Cobb NAACP, Cobb Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the League of Women Voters, among others.