Recently, there have been two town hall meetings to discuss creating a new city in North Georgia. This new city would be the City of Brookhaven.
The first meeting was held on May 24 to introduce the concept of this new city to the area’s homeowners. GA Representative Mike Jacobs has introduced House Bill 636 to pay for a study by The Vinson Institute of the University of Georgia.
Between now and late October, the Vinson Institute will study:
- The cost aspects of a City of Brookhaven;
- The range of services that would be provided by the City of Brookhaven;
- What would be the capital expenditures for the new city’s assets (parks, town hall, etc);
- What would be the potential sources of revenue from the new city (wine, liquor, beer; property taxes);
- What would be the potential revenue sources from franchises serving the City of Brookhaven (cable, gas, telephone);
- What would the facility and salary costs be for a new city.
The portion of the meeting that I didn’t understand, were the areas to which the study will apply. The areas being considered are: Historic Brookhaven, Murphy Candler, Brittany, Linwood Park, Silver Lake, Brookhaven Heights, Lenox Park and Brookhaven Fields. Another broader section of the study will include Ashford Park and Drew Valley. The latter two, in my opinion, are closer to being a part of a City of Brookhaven, than Murphy Candler, Silver Lake and Brittany. But then, Rep. Jacobs, one of the key proponents, lives in the Murphy Candler area.
One of the points that the organizers made, was that taxes would probably (???) not go up. The residents of Brookhaven would pay less to the county and the balance of the taxes would be made to the new city. In other words, if the City of Brookhaven opts to create its own police and fire departments, tax payers would pay that portion of taxes to the city and deduct it from their county-paid taxes. It is like a basket of services: pick which ones you want, deduct them from the county’s revenue basket and then put them into the City’s basket.
The town-hall leaders asked the city organizers of the newly-created cities of Dunwoody and Sandy Springs to speak at the May meeting. One of them said that there has not been a tax increase in the 3 years that they have operated the city of Dunwoody and that Dunwoody is operating with a surplus of revenue. It was also said that Dekalb County’s property tax millage rate of 2.5 mils will go up to replenish the county’s reserves, perhaps as high as 4 mils. Dekalb CEO Burrell Ellis recently said that taxes must go up to pay for the county’s services (A “mil” is equal to $1.00 for every $1,000. of the assessed value; in Georgia, the assessment is set at 40% of the market value).
Like many of the town hall attendees, I am not sold on cityhood. I will have to hear what the benefits of a City of Brookhaven would be. Is it just more money out of our pockets?
