Every 10 years local government officials can count on the U.S. census to provide two things: a new population number and more reasons to visit the state Capitol.
Part of the work for local leaders making the Gold Dome pilgrimage this session involves work to amend quirky population acts in state law. The population acts are a holdover from decades back when lawmakers passed legislation targeting specific jurisdictions based on population figures.
By setting narrow population limits, lawmakers could change the statewide law for one area without changing it for every jurisdiction. And because the laws didn’t name specific jurisdictions, they were not deemed as unconstitutional local laws infringing on state rules.
The population acts cover a range of issues, including local elections, employee expenses, planning and development, and fire safety standards. But as populations continue to change, many counties are finding themselves growing into an act they may not want to be in. In some cases, becoming part of a new population bracket can mean spending additional taxpayer money to abide by the population rules.
To keep track of the various and obtuse acts, local officials rely on the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia for updates. Last year the ACCG published a 131-page booklet of all the various population acts, noting their population brackets and which counties were moving into and out of the brackets. In most cases, the effective date for the applicability of the 2010 census to Georgia statutes is July 1 of this year.
In the metro area, perhaps the county most affected by population acts has been Gwinnett, which saw almost a 37 percent population increase over the past decade. Many of the population acts in state law were geared toward the longtime powerhouse population counties of DeKalb and Fulton. But in the 2010 census, Gwinnett leapfrogged DeKalb to become Georgia’s second-most-populous county, making Gwinnett subject to population laws that had previously not applied to it.
Gwinnett is pushing several bills that would either change the population brackets to move them out of the requirements or repeal the acts altogether.
The acts include issues such as limiting when local bond elections can be held, collecting interest on some late tax payments and implementing a budget commission.
For Gwinnett, amending the population acts is all about maintaining the county’s status quo, said Susan Lee, Gwinnett’s legislative liaison.
“We don’t want Gwinnett to be singled out or different from any other county,” Lee said. “Ultimately, we would like all of [the population acts] repealed, and legislators would just as soon have us repeal the ones we can.”
Rep. John Carson, R-Marietta, is sponsoring a bill to repeal one of the acts that would now pertain to Cobb County. The act would require the county to spend additional money for more business studies for potential commercial projects. In a good economy, the requirement could cost Cobb $100,000 each year.
“The only way to deal with these acts," Carson said, "is to repeal them or to change the population numbers in them.”
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