Clayton chairman delivers good, bad news in State of County address

Clayton County stands to lose $16 million a year in revenue if the federal government stops local communities from being able to collect taxes on jet fuel at airports across the country, the county's top government official said Thursday

As it stands now, Clayton is able to levy taxes on jet fuel at Hartsfield-International Airport and that money is a vital stream of revenue for the county, its seven cities and school district, Commission Chairman Jeff Turner told hundreds gathered for his annual State of the County address.

But the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a change in the policy that now redirects that revenue to aviation-related projects only. The change goes into effect at the end of this year.

“If it isn’t changed or modified and we’re not allowed to continue to levy that tax, it’ll dramatically affect our community,” Turner told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after his speech at the Georgia International Convention Center near the airport.

About half of that money goes to the school district, Turner told the crowd of business and government officials. “The most damaging effect this will have will be on our children and the school system.”

To that end, Turner said: “We plan to take an aggressive approach to finding a solution that would be best for Clayton County.”

He did not elaborate on what that solution would be.

Turner also told the audience the county has had no luck in finding out from federal officials if Clayton is a so-called “sanctuary city” for undocumented people from other countries.

“We’ve received no correspondence from Homeland Security, immigration or other federal agency,” he said. But the former Clayton Police chief quickly added that the county’s law enforcement works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE and other agencies to “identify criminal aliens in the county.”

Turner told the crowd that 2016 was a fruitful year for the county:

• More than 2,000 jobs were added.

• Reserves grew to $55 million, up from $47.5 million the year before.

• Special Local Option Sales Tax or SPLOST projects that had been lingering for years are nearly finished. Roughly 68 percent of the parks and recreation projects and 75 percent of the transportation are done and a quarter of the projects being funded by a 2015 SPLOSt are done.

• Film production grew from 17 projects to 30 last year and will likely see more now that plans for a state-of-the-art film studio have been announced.

Going forward, the county is “working on a high capacity transit initiative which will explore different transit alignments, assessibility and connectivity to the Atlanta region,” Turner said.

CLAYTON COUNTY’S 2016 REPORT CARD

Here’s a look at how Clayton County performed:

New jobs: 2,014

Film production: 30, up 76 percent

Reserves: $55 million up from $47.5 million the previous year

Here’s a breakdown of where the new jobs came from:

Food Depot: 66

Diversified Utilities Services: 200

Waste Eliminator: 30

Logisticare Expansion in College Park: 35

KW International: 30

JCPenney Distribution: 110

Clorox: 85

DTS: 200

Clayton Fixtures: 15

American Insulated Glass: 14

Source HOV: 20

Southside Sheetmetal: 10

CL Services: 29

Love’s Tire Retread: 30

Southern Tire Company: 40

YRC Trucking: 60