With Fulton County struggling to keep up services for the unincorporated Southside, the county government wants state law changed to put the district in line for millions more dollars per year.
State Rep. Roger Bruce says he'll introduce legislation, at the request of Fulton's lobbyists, entitling south Fulton to 1-cent local option sales tax proceeds as if it were a city. Bruce, a Democrat, is a resident of the unincorporated area.
The change could prevent further tax rate hikes on the district. LOST is designed to boost coffers and prevent tax increases, and in the years since Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton and Chattahoochee Hills left the unincorporated district and took their taxes with them, south Fulton's rate has more than doubled as property values plummeted in the recession.
Though unincorporated residents pay into the LOST pot every time they make a purchase, they see no direct return as cities do, only a diluted return through countywide services. Under current law, only the general fund and the cities get shares of the hundreds of millions of dollars the tax generates.
South Fulton rejected cityhood by 85 percent in a 2007 referendum.
For Bruce’s bill to gain traction in a GOP-controlled Legislature, it would need support from the county’s Northside Republicans. The change could complicate what are already expected to be tense negotiations this year over how the county splits up LOST dollars with 14 cities, including Atlanta.
Millions could be diverted from Fulton’s general fund, raising the risk of a countywide tax rate increase to fund libraries, the criminal justice system and health and social services for nearly 1 million people. Depending on how the law reads, another mouth at the LOST pie might mean less money for city residents to offset property taxes.
Bruce, however, insists that no cities’ shares would be affected. South Fulton’s money, he said, would come out of the county’s share, which last year totaled $34 million.
“I hesitate to say yes or no outright,” state Rep. Lynne Riley, R-Johns Creek, said. “It would really depend on whether it would trigger a millage rate adjustment for the general fund.”
College Park Mayor Jack Longino, whose city’s LOST share could diminish in coming years because of its drop in population, said he doesn’t trust the county.
“I have some concerns if they want to change it to benefit them,” Longino said. “They never want to change it to benefit us.”
Under the county’s 2012 budget, south Fulton residents will see another 1.5-mill increase in their special tax rate to pay for city-type services such as police, fire protection, parks and planning. The new 10.469-mill rate translates to about $525 on a $200,000 home with a homestead exemption.
South Fulton Commissioner Bill Edwards has assured taxpayers that falling home values will keep tax bills from going up.
“If we get local option sales tax money, we’ll be complete,” the commissioner said. “The unfair thing is, 87,500 people are paying taxes, and we’re not benefiting from it.”
Roswell Mayor Jere Wood said he favors putting south Fulton into the LOST mix, but then taking the county out completely. Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker said if south Fulton is to be treated like a municipality, then countywide taxpayers should no longer fund the district’s roadwork, budgeted at $7 million this year.
Edwards strongly disagrees with both positions.
South Fulton resident A.W. Davis, a former high school economics teacher, said he would gladly trade the road money for sales tax proceeds.
“When south Fulton decided they didn’t want to be a city, that was one of the consequences,” he said of being shut out of LOST. “But when everybody revisits the issue and looks at the unfairness, they would say that it’s the right thing to do, to give south Fulton [the money].”
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