One Man’s Opinion: Let the Buck Stop Here By Bill Crane
For several decades of my life, Buckhead was one of my favorite parts of Atlanta. The finest restaurants, the nightlife, and the shopping and entertainment districts were almost unparalleled in the southeast. However, the Buckhead that was in many ways is not the Buckhead of today. Like it or not, the City of Atlanta government did not cause many of the challenges that the community has been more recently experiencing. Random and increasingly violent crime rates are occurring across the nation. However, troubling patterns have developed more recently in Buckhead. The most beautiful houses in Atlanta, some say in
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the state, still line the streets of West Paces Ferry, Wieuca Road, Tuxedo Road, and the like, and the money flowing into and out of those homes and the Buckhead business/entertainment and retail district often show the highest disposable incomes in the state. That said, a new stand-up police department formed from creating a new “City of Buckhead” would not happen overnight and would not be likely to freeze or reverse those trends by itself. An unincorporated area, incorporating, becoming a municipality, and following state law in offering at least four required services is not cleaving or cherry-picking property or residents out of an existing municipality. That has been tried once previously when the gated community of Eagle’s Landing in Henry County had its eyes on cityhood. The problem was without jacking property taxes for their residents through the roof, they needed some retail, light industrial, and sales tax revenues to make their math work – submitting proposed maps for a City of Eagle’s Landing which would subtract about 20 percent of the land within the existing city of Stockbridge, Georgia, as well as capture roughly 40-50% of that city’s annual sales tax and hotel/motel tax revenues, as Stockbridge does not charge residential property taxes. Thankfully the voters of Stockbridge, and even in some precincts of the proposed Eagle’s Landing, saw a long list of unanswered questions. How would the existing bonded debt of the City of Stockbridge be divided and repaid? What about retired Stockbridge City employee pension and retirement benefit expenses? Stockbridge voters soundly defeated the proposal, 57% NO to 43% YES, in a universe of roughly 7,500 voters. And, thankfully, there is finally an organized voice of opposition to the Buckhead cityhood movement. The Atlanta business community is now rallying to defend Georgia’s Capital City if a bit late in the game. Recently, more than 100 of the largest property owners and developers in Buckhead began to realize what just might happen to their property tax assessments and tax rates in a new municipality, NOT subject to any of the development contracts, tax abatements, or other incentives meted out previously by the City of Atlanta. Continued on page 19
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