Cobb County finance director presents $92.7 million 2026 budget request, driven by personnel costs

Cobb County Finance Director Bill Volkman told the Board of Commissioners at a work session that county departments have submitted a combined request that would increase spending by roughly $92,700,000 in 2026, with personnel costs and recently filled vacancies accounting for most of the growth.

"The total request at the bottom you'll see is roughly $92,700,000. That is all funds countywide," Volkman said as he outlined the county's preliminary figures and the schedule for board review. He described the 2026 request as "position heavy," with departments seeking 290 positions in the amended year of the county's biennial budget process.

The request follows the first year of Cobb County's biannual budget process introduced in 2025. Volkman said countywide staffing changed materially since the 2025 snapshot: departments filled 106 vacancies between the 2025 snapshot and the preliminary 2026 snapshot — a factor that increases full-year salary and benefit costs because vacancies had been budgeted at 50 percent and filled positions are budgeted at full salary and benefits.

That reduction in vacancies contributed to higher personnel costs overall, Volkman said, and other recurring drivers include annual contract step-ups, routine health-care cost increases, utilities and general inflation. He also noted that merit increases and step-in-grade awards given in March have a full-year effect on the next budget.

Why it matters: The general fund would bear the largest share of the requested increase — Volkman showed a preliminary figure of about…