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Milton County Georgia Representatives Jan Jones and Mark Burkhalter of Alpharetta,
plan to introduce a bill into the Georgia Legislature that would re-establish the former Milton County in the area which today
is known as North Fulton. This would enable North Fulton to essentially secede
from Fulton County
and become a separate, independent county. This web site will provide
information (both pros and cons) about the Recreation of Milton
County so residents can form their own opinions. Every attempt will be made to ensure the information provided on this site is accurate and non-biased. Why is there a desire to create Milton? Here are the words of the AJC editorial, dated October 20, 2006: “With
nearly every move it makes, the dysfunctional Fulton County government takes another step toward its own demise. The county jail has been
a public disaster for years. More recently, the county’s tax assessment process has been shown to be a shambles. Driven
into revolt by high taxes and lack of basic services, most of North Fulton has decided to
incorporate into municipalities. Racial and Political Differences Unfortunately,
the Fulton County Commission is regularly divided along racial, political, and geographic lines. On November 7th, two Democrats were elected to the Fulton County Commission. John Eaves, one of the Democratic candidates ran an ad featuring three prominent black, Democrat politicians. This ad has been criticized for inflaming racial tensions. The ad was particularly disturbing because the two white Republican candidates, Lee Morris and Bill Loughery,
had a long history of public service, and have never been accused of any racial prejudice.
The following is a transcript of the ad so you can judge for yourself: Transcript
of The Radio Ad Run By Chairman-Elect John Eaves “This
is Congressman John Lewis.” “And I’m Mayor Shirley Franklin.” “And I’m Andy Young.” Lewis:
“On November 7th we face the most dangerous situation we ever have. If you think fighting off dogs and water
hoses in the ‘60s was bad, imagine if we sit idly by and let the right-wing Republicans take control of the Fulton County
Commission.” Franklin:
“The efforts of Martin and Coretta King, Hosea Williams, Maynard Jackson and many others will be lost. That’s
why we must stand up and we must turn out the vote for the Democrats on Election Day.” Young: “And especially
for John Eaves for Fulton County Commission chairman. Unless you want them to turn back the clock on equal rights and human
rights and economic opportunity for all of us, vote for John Eaves as Fulton
County chairman.” Lewis: “Your very life may depend on it.” Eaves: “This message paid for by the
committee to elect John Eaves.” What Services
Are Provided By Fulton County? With the
incorporation of North Fulton, the following services, which were provided by Fulton
County, will now be provided by the cities of Alpharetta, Roswell,
Milton, Johns Creek,
and Sandy Springs. - Police
- Fire
- Parks
- Planning
and Zoning
- Roads
Fulton County will continue to provide the following services, and if Milton
County is re-established, Milton
County will take over responsibility for providing these services: - Board of Assessors for Property Taxes
- Courts
- Health & Human Services
- Libraries
- Sheriff Department (this would probably be eliminated since there would not be any unincorporated
areas left in the new Milton County.
- Funding (tax collection) for Grady & MARTA
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Grady
Hospital and MARTA Grady
Hospital, located in downtown Atlanta
provides healthcare to individuals who can not pay for it. The taxpayers of Fulton County pay over $82 million dollars
a year to fund Grady, and the costs continue to rise each year. MARTA is funded by a 1% sales
tax generating approximately $200 million annually. In any bill to create Milton
County, a large issue will be how much North Fulton
will be required to keep funding these two entities. Long Term Debt & Contractual Obligations According
to the 2006 Fulton County Budget, the County’s long term debt and contractual obligations total $1.112 billion. Milton County
would need to assume responsibility for some of this debt. What
do Proponents say are the Anticipated Advantages of Re-creating Milton
County? - Eliminate the bitter, political, geographic, and racial divisiveness on the County Commission Board:
Lower Cost of County Government: The
Reason Foundation has published the results of city/county outsourcing, with a saving of 20% to 30% to the taxpayers. If the
outsourcing of Sandy Springs and the planned outsourcing of Johns Creek and Milton are harbingers of what the proposed Milton
County might look like, the taxpayers would be advantaged.
Improving
The Quality Of County Services:
Performance Standards for every employee would result in fewer but more capable
employees for the proposed Milton County.
Since each municipality has a police force, there will no longer be a need for Sheriff. The Milton Board of Assessors and
the Milton County Clerk will be accountable to the Milton County Manager, serving at the pleasure of the County Manager. Residents
of North Fulton would no longer have to travel to downtown Atlanta for county business. Although there is currently a
North Fulton Annex in Sandy Springs, it provides only limited services. The new location for all Milton County
business would be located in the North Fulton area.
What do those opposed to the Re-creation
of Milton County say are the anticipated disadvantages?
What
do Fulton County Democrats think about Milton County? Fulton County Democrats have created a web site to provide planning and information about the proposed re-creation
of Milton County. Click here to visit this site. What do Buckhead Residents think about Milton County? Most do not like
the idea since it would leave Buckhead in Fulton County without the financial and voting support of the North Fulton area.
Where
will the dividing line be for Fulton and Milton County? There has been a great amount of speculation as to where the dividing line will be between Fulton and the proposed Milton County. Some say the south boundary will be anywhere from the Chattahoochee
River to Virginia Highlands. Most Milton County advocates, however, place the boundary line at the northern Atlanta City limits line and no further south.
What are the hurdles for creating Milton County?
The proposal requires a two thirds majority in both the Georgia House and Senate. The
measure must then be voted on statewide. If approved by all Georgia voters, the measure must then return to the General
Assembly to draw up the specific boundaries. Then the measure will go back to local residents for a referendum on the
new county. If all goes according to plan, it would take between three to four years to accomplish.
Opposition
to the proposal could come from a number of directions in the General Assembly including:
1. concern over
the impact of the change on the remaining residents of Fulton County;
2. the financial impact of this move
on the Metro Atlanta economy; and
3. whether this move will spur similar movements in other parts of the state.
In addition to the political
hurdles, legal obstacles also exist. Under the present Georgia Constitution, when a new county is created all of the
residents of the existing county have a right to vote on the proposal. (In other words, everyone from Johns Creek to
Palmetto in Fulton County could vote.) The advocates of Milton County want to change that requirement in their proposed legislation
by allowing only the residents of the new proposed county to vote on the change. There is a question, however, as to
whether that change is doable under the Federal Voting Rights Act because it would take away from voters in the City of Atlanta
and south Fulton the right to vote on the change. Unless altered to allow all residents of Fulton County to vote on
any changes, this part of the proposal could delay the timeline for the new county or derail it all together.
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AJC Blog About Milton County:
www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/town-talk/entries/2007/01/26/is_the_milton_c.html
Published Articles About the Recreation of Milton County... What’s
behind the Milton County
push? By Brian
O'Shea | Friday, January 26, 2007, Atlanta Journal-Constitution A proposal to re-create the old Milton
County by breaking off north Fulton
has ignited cries of racism and class warfare. State Rep. Jan Jones, an Alpharetta Republican, is the chief sponsor
of the Milton proposal. It would require two steps —
approval of a constitutional amendment making it legally possible to revive the old county, which merged in to Fulton in 1932;
and a second step with the Legislature setting up a referendum asking voters to approve the change. No action on the first
bill is expected until next year, although Jones said this week she may ask for public hearings this year. In a story by The Associated
Press, a lawmaker from Atlanta is quoted arguing that the motivation behind Milton County is racial. The story, by reporter
Doug Gross, says in part: “Supporters say it is a quest for more responsive government in a county with a population
greater than that of six states. Opponents say the measure is racially motivated and will pit white against black, rich against
poor. ” ‘If it gets to the floor, there will be blood on the walls,’
warned state Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat and member of the Legislative Black Caucus who bitterly opposes the plan.
Fort added: ‘As much as you would like to think it’s not racial, it’s difficult to draw any other conclusion.’
Jones
sees Fulton County as too large to effectively
govern, and she and other supporters also make some the same arguments that led to creation of the city of Sandy
Springs and two other cities — that Fulton County
has not been responsive to residents in north Fulton. There’s
no escaping the racial differences between north and south Fulton.
As the AP story noted, north Fulton is largely white and Republican.
Atlanta and south Fulton are
largely black and Democratic.
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“Lawmakers Plot the Return of Milton County”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.
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“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."
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