Taxpayers pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for the Fulton County government’s lobbying arm, which is pushing an agenda at the state Capitol that includes positions that run counter to the views of many residents.
The commission has ordered its legislative team to fight any measures that would reshape or minimize the county government or lead to the breakaway of a new Milton County. Many north Atlanta and north Fulton residents want such changes.
Fulton also will lobby against Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers’ efforts to restrict the Tax Commissioner’s sale of tax liens to private collection companies, a system which taxpayer advocates say can leave low-income property owners buried in fines and penalties that can cost them their homes.
At issue, opponents and watchdog groups say, is whether elected officials should spend countywide taxes lobbying to maintain the status quo, when so many constituents favor change. During the past six years, residents voted to form three new cities in north Fulton and one in south Fulton out of malcontent with the county government.
Part of the issue stems from the county’s diverse makeup: Stretching more than 70 miles from north to south, it has nearly 1 million people. More than 90 percent now live within 14 cities, including 420,000 in Atlanta and nearly 350,000 people in north Fulton’s six cities.
The county government collected more than $420 million in property taxes last year, and many items on the lobbying list are geared to keeping revenue flowing. But some are not favored by people in certain areas.
Commission Vice Chair Emma Darnell said that’s how majority rule works. The commission approved the legislative agenda 6-1, with north Fulton Commissioner Liz Hausmann dissenting.
“We have to always think of the interests of everybody,” said Darnell, who represents northwest Atlanta and part of unincorporated south Fulton. “Not just (my district), but the entire county.”
In one case, county lobbyists last year helped torpedo College Park’s plan to form its own water and sewer authority, which the county feared could lead to competition for the Fulton and Atlanta systems.
“They shouldn’t be able to use their lobbyists, and use our tax money, to fight against us,” College Park Mayor Jack Longino said.
Fulton budgeted $677,600 this year for its Intergovernmental Affairs Division, which includes a contract with a federal-level lobbying firm for no more than $85,000. State-level lobbyist Mike Vaquer is considered a temporary employee and earns $68.75 per hour with a maximum of 1,800 hours. A second state lobbyist, Michele Dunn, makes $3,000 per month for five months, ending in May.
Last year, DeKalb County spent $260,000 in contracts for state lobbying and $105,000 on national-level lobbying. Similarly opposing its own residents, DeKalb is asking state lawmakers to stall forming the new city of Brookhaven.
Atlanta spent $144,000 on state lobbying last year and $300,000 on federal. Gwinnett spent $119,000 at the state level and $82,500 on federal. Cobb leaves state lobbying to elected officials or the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, but pays $120,000 a year for federal lobbying, a spokesman said.
Fulton’s lobbying list also includes backing measures to give Local Option Sales Tax proceeds to unincorporated south Fulton, allow residents to de-annex from cities more easily and to find more money for Grady Memorial Hospital and MARTA.
Hausmann said she questions how effective Fulton’s lobbyists can be, given that they focus on the Democratically controlled Fulton County delegation in a legislature dominated by Republicans.
Diane DeVore, a Roswell resident and member of the North Fulton and Friends Tea Party, is frustrated to be helping fund lobbyists who fight the Milton County crusade.
“Here’s north Fulton,” she said, “who would like to be in Milton County, and we’re paying $3,000 per month to one and $69 per hour to another to go down there and oppose it.”
Darnell said opposing the Milton movement is a case of putting the interests of the many above those of the few. Opponents contend splitting the county would financially eviscerate Atlanta and south Fulton. Darnell also said she made her own compromise, supporting the legislative package overall though she does not believe tax collections should be outsourced.
Fulton routinely sells overdue bills to private collection firms. Some taxpayers have complained they never received notification and wound up saddled with debt.
Robin Gordon spent years ensnared in the system after the county, unbeknown to her, put a lien against her apartment, sold it to a private company, then sold the property at a sheriff’s auction. At one point she owed $8,200 to satisfy what started as $291 in delinquent taxes and penalties. After the Atlanta-Journal Constitution published a story on the matter, her mortgage company agreed to pay the $8,200.
Gordon said she doesn’t want her tax money used to counter efforts to change the system.
“The county obviously makes out on this,” she said.
Last year, Rogers introduced a measure to prevent tax commissioners from foreclosing or selling liens until taxes were delinquent for one year. Senate Bill 234 stalled in the House last year, but Rogers said he’ll push a new version .
Fulton doesn’t want limits on governments using “any tools at their disposal” to collect, according to the legislative agenda.
“I have no problem with them advocating for it,” Common Cause Georgia Executive Director William Perry said. “But I think it’s a problem to use taxpayer dollars to lobby for it.”
- Staff writers April Hunt, Jeremiah McWilliams and David Wickert contributed to this article.
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