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Chairman Eaves pushing 'one county'
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November 02, 2009
ATLANTA – Fulton County Chairman John Eaves has been one of the vocal opponents of splitting off North Fulton to make Milton County. Now, he is marshaling forces in the form of the One Fulton County Committee to lobby for keeping Fulton County whole.
With state Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, and Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter, R-Johns Creek, in the House poised to push for the legislation to hold a statewide referendum to allow the formation of a new Milton County, Eaves has begun a somewhat belated campaign to argue for keeping Fulton whole.
With former Atlanta mayors Sam Massell and Andrew Young, John Sherman, founder and executive director of the Fulton Taxpayers Association, and former Ga. Pacific CEO Pete Correll among them, Eaves wanted to bring a cross-section of leaders who will suggest strategies to keep Fulton unified.
Eaves was asked, why keep Fulton together, when it is three counties cobbled together in the 1930s during The Great Depression and today has such disparate geographical and socio-economic differences?
Eaves responded by saying there are a number of reasons for keeping the boundaries as they are.
"First from a regional standpoint, the metro area is already a Balkanized region. We have five counties in the central core.
"We have 159 counties in the state of Georgia. In Florida where I grew up, where there were only 67 counties covering about the same geographical area. That means Georgia has almost three times as many counties here," Eaves said. "Why introduce more levels of government to the metro area?"
The metro area is already faced with the need to come to agreements on issues such as transportation, water distribution, transit and settle regional issues. There needs to be more cohesion and less divisiveness.
The problem with that argument to people like Roswell Mayor Jere Wood is having a Milton County would ensure its residents' interests would be represented.
Eaves said a Milton County would also increase divisiveness in the area of economic development and new business recruitment.
"If the northern portion of the county were to be separate, it will certainly be a challenge for the remaining portion of the county concerning the mandated services we would have to continue to deliver," Eaves said.
There are the issues of the maintenance of Grady Health Care System and MARTA, which are dependent on tax revenues from all of present Fulton County. Eaves said maintaining those entities would fall on a smaller tax base.
Fulton County would face the problem of schools, parks and other Fulton County properties that would be landlocked in new Milton. He said those properties could not be given away.
"I just think the move to separate within the county creates a whole lot more problems than we have right now," he said.
However, Rep. Jones has always maintained that a new Milton County would maintain its full share of tax support of Grady and MARTA as part of an ongoing obligation to repay bonded indebtedness.
Nevertheless, the de-annexation of North Fulton would leave a much diminished tax base in Fulton to face new challenges. Many of the social ills requiring services are inside I-285, Eaves said.
"I don't think it is too late to act. Something needs to be done," he said. "I think this [a new Milton] is driven mainly by elected officials."
Eaves agreed there have been years of political enmity between North Fulton and the county south of I-285 that has also fed a lot of the fear and suspicion that North Fulton is simply desired as a cash cow, a source of tax revenue without ever getting a fair amount of services in return.
"I think we all have to work toward being more conciliatory. Things can be done to move forward and bridge the divide that has developed in the county," Eaves said.
A lot of the source of suspicion and enmity has disappeared with the emergence of the new cities in North Fulton, he said. Now that all of the area is incorporated, its cities provide the services with the taxes they collect themselves.
"Some elected officials have told me privately that there is no need for a Milton County," he said.
One of the One Fulton Committee members, long-time Alpharetta resident and elderly affairs advocate Dorothy "Dot" Benson, has been a veteran of the zoning wars and internecine politicking that goes on at the Fulton County Commission. She said she agreed to serve on the committee for one reason.
"I am not really in favor of Milton County. I know it would massage a lot of egos for a lot of things that have happened in years past," Benson said. "But if Milton is founded, it will destroy Atlanta.
"It is an international city with prestige throughout the world. If Milton is formed, it would cripple Fulton's finances."
Instead, people should "look at the whole picture." A crippled Atlanta would have a rippling effect throughout the metro area. That would ultimately affect the whole state, she said.
"That is a big price to pay to get a 'Now we've won' attitude," Benson said. "It just wouldn't be good."
But Benson is less optimistic that the committee will have any affect on legislation moving toward January's legislative session in the General Assembly.
"I think it should have been started two years ago. I don't think there is enough time now," she said.
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Tags: Milton, Milton City Council
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