Bring back Milton County? CON: Split would tax residents, economy

A strange thing happened at the state Capitol on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

When the House of Representatives recessed on that day, a surprise meeting of the House Committee on State Planning and Community Affairs was held: The committee posted notice of the meeting a mere 30 minutes before the meeting began. Why? Well, the committee was to debate House Resolution 21 allowing the creation of Milton County out of existing Fulton County. The measure is supported by the House Whip and Speaker Pro Tem, and the members apparently did not want to hear comments from the opposition.

HR 21 proposes to recreate Milton on boundaries generally similar to those boundaries of the former Milton, which was merged into Fulton during the Great Depression. In reality, the proposed new Milton would be approximately 55 percent larger than the former county. The re-creation of Milton would require a three-step process beginning with a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment.

The next step would be general legislation outlining all of the details of splitting a county in two, and the third step would be a vote by only those people living in the to-be-created Milton. The answer to why only those people leaving get to vote is obvious, and this and a handful of other provisions in the resolution raise serious legal issues, including what we feel is a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We feel that this resolution is bad public policy and would be very troubling for the metro Atlanta economy.

However, instead of focusing on these legal issues, I would like to focus on the practical implications of splitting Fulton.

For residents in the proposed new Milton, the implications are largely financial. Residents of North Fulton are being told re-creation of a new county will lower their taxes, improve property values and provide better-mandated county services. At best, this is foolhardy to believe, and at worst it is misleading to the public.

First, Milton would have to purchase all of the Fulton assets within the Milton boundaries. These assets include schools, fire stations and other county facilities. In order to comply with the Georgia Constitution, these assets would have to be purchased at fair market value.

Second, Milton would have to set up all offices constitutionally required of a county. For example, the county would have to construct a courthouse and have to employ a sheriff, clerk of court and judges (both state court and superior court). As you can imagine, the financial burden of these two categories of expenses will be profound.

Additionally, for all residents in metro Atlanta, the impact to the Atlanta business community could be disastrous. At best, many of the national and multinational companies we rely upon would remain in Fulton or relocate to Milton. However, given the negative impact to both counties’ tax rates, it is far more likely that these companies would flee the metro area.

I urge all of the members of the General Assembly to vote no on HR 21. I urge all Georgia residents to contact their state representative, senator and Gov. Sonny Perdue and voice your opposition.

Finally, I invite the residents of north Fulton to meet with me and county department heads. These meetings will be in the form of town-hall meetings to take place in the next month in Milton, Sandy Springs and Johns Creek. I look forward to a frank discussion of these matters with you.

Let’s work through our differences in an open, public setting, with healthy debate of the issues. Together we can continue making Fulton — north, south and Atlanta central — the jewel of the South.

• John H. Eaves is chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.