Bring back Milton County? PRO: More efficiency, less expense for Fulton

Look in the mirror, Fulton County.

You truly meet Merriam-Webster’s definition of dysfunctional.

A dysfunctional system is one that is impaired or abnormal in functioning.

Consider the following and tell me why the 300,000 residents of North Fulton, recognizing this dysfunctional relationship with its partners south of I-285, don’t deserve the independent, self-governance the General Assembly is offering:

Two audits found the county’s board of assessors had not accurately assessed property values, leading to a lack of confidence in tax bills by both homeowners and commercial landowners.

The county is so overvalued and overtaxed that even Elton John sued the county, challenging the value of his Buckhead penthouse.

Fulton employs 6,037 full-time workers, the most of any government in the state.

With a 2008 population of 952,000, the per capita number of employees is among the highest of any urban county in the nation.

The only way to stop it is to create a smaller, more efficient county closest to the people of North Fulton.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Department has been plagued with inept sheriffs who have either been corrupt or incompetent such as Jackie Barrett, suspended by Gov. Sonny Perdue for giving $7 million collected by her office to a Florida broker who made investments that auditors called illegal.

When the General Assembly created the cities of Sandy Springs, Milton and Johns Creek, opponents in the Fulton government complex cried foul.

The sky would fall in and the county could not sustain itself without all the tax revenue from north Fulton residents, they claimed.

The exact opposite has happened. With fewer residents and less territory to serve, Fulton has turned a surplus as it has cut back on services.

By recreating Milton, a county that existed prior to 1932, Fulton will learn to function just fine without its neighbors to the north and the revenue that accompanies it.

A smaller county means less area to serve, thus the need for less revenue.

The remaining Fulton should combine with the city of Atlanta to create an Atlanta-Fulton just as we have Columbus-Muscogee and Athens-Clarke County governments.

But that doesn’t mean the residents of Milton will abandon its regional obligations.

Milton would continue to pay for Grady Memorial Hospital, MARTA and remain a contributing partner to the metro Atlanta region.

We will be a model for the rest of the state because we will eliminate outdated state-mandated services, many that were never needed in county government.

We can privatize many services we do deliver — showing government doesn’t have to be expensive.

A new study by Georgia State and University of Georgia researchers points out that the city of Atlanta and Fulton can also operate more efficiently without the “enabling” partner of its neighbors to the north that have allowed it to sustain its big-spending ways for decades.

We would have never seen such a shameful waste of taxpayer funds ranging from lush palm trees at the county government complex to the construction of “Fanplex,” a $2.5 million arcade and miniature golf facility that went bankrupt near Turner Field if it wasn’t for the revenue provided by north Fulton taxpayers.

The new Milton can consolidate some services with its six cities in the north and Fulton can consolidate its many duplicative services with the city of Atlanta. Two partners that span 65 miles should not be forced to remain together for the sake of a name.

Fulton and Milton will be healthy and prosperous counties once they embark on their own.

• Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) is House speaker pro tem and a sponsor of HR 21.