Have your say
The Fulton County Board of Commissioners will consider a 17 percent property tax rate increase at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Fulton County Government Center Assembly Hall, 141 Pryor St. SW, Atlanta. The commission will take public testimony on the proposal. Residents also can participate via videoconference at the North Fulton Service Center, 7741 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, and the South Fulton Service Center, 5600 Stonewall Tell Road, College Park.
Passionate Fulton residents, certain that county government had run amok, applauded the General Assembly’s decision last year to approve a property tax cap designed to force spending cuts.
But, with the Fulton Board of Commissioners poised to approve a 17 percent property tax increase Wednesday in defiance of the cap, some of the passion seems to have drained out of county residents. Fewer than 30 people spoke at four recent public hearings on the issue, and some of them supported the tax increase.
By comparison, scores – sometimes hundreds – of people have attended commission meetings this year to support arts funding, senior services and other programs. Most commissioners seem to have concluded it’s better to protect those programs than to implement the deep spending cuts that would be necessary if the first countywide tax hike in 23 years isn’t passed.
“The reality is, from people who say `cut, cut, cut,’ it’s almost an abstract concept,” said commission Chairman John Eaves, who has been pushing for a tax increase for more than a year. “On the other side, I hear people say, `Don’t cut our specific services.’”
Opponents of the tax increase haven’t given up. They’re still urging commissioners to reject the hike and instead cut spending to balance the budget. And they’re threatening to take Fulton to court if commissioners violate the tax cap.
Commissioners “will lose, but only after who knows how long and how many dollars” spent on litigation,” said state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell.
The tax hike would cost the owner of a $275,000 house an extra $140 a year.
With property values rising steeply in some areas, some owners could see much higher tax bills than last year. A 10 percent increase in value, coupled with the tax rate increase, would cost the owner of a house valued at $275,000 last year an extra $270.
That has taxpayers like Don Horton of Roswell furious. He said his tax bill is rising but his paycheck isn’t. He thinks Fulton County should do what he’s done – cut discretionary spending to pay for necessities.
“There’s a ton of discretionary spending in that budget,” Horton said at a public hearing on the property tax increase Wednesday. “If they don’t find it, they’re not even trying.”
Such sentiments led the General Assembly last year to prohibit Fulton County from raising its property tax rate until next year. The cap was designed to force Fulton commissioners to rein in spending that critics say is out of control.
Fulton officials decried the move as illegal state meddling in local affairs. Citing their home rule authority under the state constitution, they voted to repeal the tax cap last summer. The north Fulton lawmakers who proposed the tax cap say it’s legal and have threatened to file a lawsuit to enforce it.
Albers said more than a thousand of his constituents have called or e-mailed commissioners this summer to express their opposition to the tax increase. He and other legislators urged residents to contact commissioners in an effort to head off the property tax increase. Eaves has dismissed it as an “orchestrated attempt” to influence the commission.
Horton was one of only two people who spoke Wednesday at the hearing held at the North Fulton Service Center in Sandy Springs.
“I’m disappointed. I’ve been trying to rally people,” he said. “Everybody’s busy.”
Some who did attend the hearings say the tax increase is necessary. Ben Howard of Atlanta opposes a new $25 annual membership fee for senior centers that commissioners approved in January and believes taxes should be raised instead.
“Seniors have paid their dues,” Howard said after a hearing Wednesday morning. “As the cost of living rises, taxes need to rise accordingly.”
A majority of commissioners appears to agree. In January they voted 5-2 to approve a budget that assumes they will raise the tax rate. By the same margin they recently voted to advertise the 17 percent rate increase.
Eaves praised those who spoke at the hearings, but declined to draw any conclusion about what the public thinks of the tax hike, based on the limited testimony given. He said Fulton is still searching for new revenue or spending cuts that could lead commissioners to approve a smaller tax increase. And he pledged to seek more ways to trim costs heading into next year’s budget.
“We’ve got to be a more efficient government,” he said. “I think everyone acknowledges that.”
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