Atlanta Business Chronicle - October 6, 2006, by Ryan Mahoney

If Milton County is re-created in 2008, as state Republican lawmakers plan, the area known today as north Fulton County would become the state's wealthiest county and a business hub with few equals in the Southeast.

The longtime dream of self-government for North Fulton residents and businesses will take a big step forward early in 2007, when GOP legislators introduce legislation to bring Milton County back to life and launch a study to support the split.

It would be the final move in the Balkanization of North Fulton, which began in 2005 when Sandy Springs won a three-decade battle for city-hood from the Democrat-controlled county and incorporated with the help of the GOP, which took over the state legislature that same year.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of the cities of Johns Creek and Milton in 2006, bringing municipal government to virtually the entire area north of the Atlanta city line, alongside established North Fulton cities Alpharetta, Mountain Park and Roswell.

At the polls, residents in all three new cities cited strong dissatisfaction with Fulton, which by its own admission was collecting millions of tax dollars in their neighborhoods but spending the money in the southern half of the county.

House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter, R-Alpharetta and the No. 2 man in the lower chamber, said county leaders had a window of opportunity to show they were willing to change their ways and avoid the split after the cities won their independence -- but failed miserably.

He cited Fulton's attempts to extract exorbitant sums of money from the cities in exchange for assets like parks and fire stations -- which their residents had already paid for in taxes -- as well as continued mismanagement of its tax assessors, libraries and sheriff's office.

"I thought they would have figured it out after Sandy Springs [incorporated], but they went the other way," Burkhalter said. "The county that we're in doesn't have our best interests at heart, and it doesn't do a lot of things well. We're going to change that."

Any split with Fulton would not happen until the 2008 election cycle, since Republicans need a statewide referendum to overcome Georgia's constitutional limit of 159 counties. The referendum could allow the re-creation of former counties, which would apply only to Milton County and Campbell County, which today is South Fulton. Or it could combine two small adjacent counties, probably in rural South Georgia, freeing up a charter for Milton County to take.

Neither way is guaranteed to work, since even getting a constitutional amendment out to the voters would require at least some Democratic lawmakers to sign on. And Republicans have unsuccessfully tried the latter idea before, though only for efficiency, not to pave the way for the return of Milton County.

Milton and Campbell counties are only part of Fulton today because they merged with it in 1932 to avoid going bankrupt. Ironically, were Milton County to leave now, its departure could all but bankrupt Fulton and sharply reduce its political power, said outgoing state Sen. Sam Zamarripa, D-Atlanta, who convened a legislative panel to study the split in 2005.

But even County Commissioner Lynne Riley, who represents North Fulton, said the advantages of a separate county would be considerable for the roughly 300,000 who live there and the thousands more who travel there daily to work.

“City-hood first step toward fleeing Fulton - Backers say 'political tide' favors county breakup”

 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7/23/06, by Anna Varela & Doug Nurse

For the leaders who helped forge two new cities in north Fulton County, success at the polls Tuesday was just one step toward a much bigger goal — breaking off a large swath of north Fulton to form an independent county.  They are targeting 2008 for a serious push to create the county of Milton, taking in all of the land from Sandy Springs to the north, and complete with its own school system.

Rep. Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta) said he thinks most voters who went to the polls in unincorporated north Fulton on Tuesday knew they were doing more than voting on cityhood.  "I think people generally understand that this is a first step toward true and complete independence," said Burkhalter, who has introduced bills several times in the past to try to carve out a new county.

Milton County boosters have several big legal and political hurdles to clear:

• The Georgia Constitution caps the number of counties at the current 159.

• The state constitution also states, "No independent school system shall hereafter be established."

• Supporters of MARTA and Grady Memorial Hospital — both funded largely by tax dollars from Fulton and DeKalb counties — would probably fight any move that could take a large, wealthy area out of their tax base.

• The Fulton County school board also wouldn't be likely to sit back and watch some of its richest communities and highest-achieving schools defect from the system.

Milton County supporters say they are studying ways to get around these issues.  "The hurdles are only as high as the politics," said Burkhalter, speaker pro tem of the House. "The reality is it's not an easy process but it's certainly one that can be achieved given the political tide that's changed."  That "political tide" is a reference to Republican control of the Legislature.  The Republican majority made it possible for supporters of the city of Sandy Springs to get a vote on incorporation last year, after decades of being foiled by Democrats representing Fulton County's interests. The creation of Sandy Springs, which started operations Jan. 1, has given hope to others in north Fulton.  The area will gain two more cities — Johns Creek in the northeast and Milton in the northwest.  Johns Creek will have a population of a little more than 62,000 and Milton will have about 20,000 residents. Add Alpharetta (about 35,000) and Sandy Springs (roughly 86,000) and some say that's plenty of people to support a new county.

In fact, more than 70 years ago, Milton was an independent county with Alpharetta as its seat. But it struggled financially during the Great Depression. In 1932, it merged with Campbell County and they were absorbed into Fulton, creating the current, oddly-shaped boundaries.  Many in north Fulton argue that it's past time to break off from a county government with a reputation for scandal in the Sheriff's Department, at the jail and in the tax assessor's office.  As for the schools, Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta) issued an open letter a few months ago voicing her support for incorporating the Milton area and working toward a new county. "A separate county would mean a highly focused, scaled-down local school system, one that could more efficiently and effectively serve north Fulton students' needs and desires," Jones wrote.

Reagan Ferguson, who runs a plant nursery and lives in the area that will become the city of Milton, said that forming a new county is a logical next step.  "I think it makes perfect sense," Ferguson said. "One reason it should work up here is there's a rather wealthy tax base."  And residents of north Fulton don't feel like they have much in common with residents of the south end of the county, he said. "You don't talk about Fulton County. You talk about north or south Fulton."  Northside resident Thomas Mulroy agreed.  "The thing everyone wants is a county of our own," said Mulroy, 40, who case his ballot Tuesday in favor of city-hood. "We want to control our schools, our parks, zoning. This is a first step."