Buckhead City – A Rural Georgia “Solution” To Urban Problems

This week’s Courier Herald column:

When I was a young bank analyst, just out of college, my first real promotion sent me to Mableton Georgia to become a branch manager.  I was generally aware of where the community in South Cobb County was but hadn’t spent much if any time there.

Settling in and wanting to better understand my market, I recall asking where City Hall was.  My tellers, already grumpy at having to train a 23-year-old to be their boss, replied with blank stares.  There wasn’t one.

Mableton, as it turns out, was more of an idea than a formal place.  The community was and remains unincorporated.  A bill pending in the legislature proposes to change that.  Separate initiatives propose to create the cities of Vinings, East Cobb, and Lost Mountain, all in Cobb County.

Virtually all of Fulton County and much of DeKalb has incorporated over the past couple of decades. I’ve supported some new cities, been skeptical of many, and opposed a few.  It seems the idea of incorporating many of Georgia’s barrier island communities lost steam after residents of Skidaway Island rejected cityhood as an idea that many saw as a solution in search of a problem.

Georgia approached a more slippery slope when the legislature approved a map for a new City of Eagle’s Landing, in Henry County.  This newly created city would have taken part of the City of Stockbridge’s commercial district in order to have a viable and sustainable tax base. 

A bad precedent would have been set, allowing the taking of one city’s tax base to form another.  The legal challenges and implications of bond rating changes for the existing city would have lasted for years, but the residents of the proposed new city rejected cityhood during their referendum – saving the state from itself and bad precedent.

This was a mere blip on the radar to one of most polarizing and politically charged proposals before the General Assembly this year.  The question of whether to create a new “Buckhead City” by taking part of the City of Atlanta – the wealthiest, highest tax generating part – has drawn attention statewide and nationally. 

The movement is being stewarded by a New Yorker and seems to have the highest support in the legislature among rural Georgia Republicans.  It’s a curious coalition to have such a vested interest in the intra-city politics of our capital city.

Before spending a few words attempting to explain why creating this city would be a horrible precedent that the legislature should be running away from, let me pose a legitimate question.  Why are so many rural Georgian conservatives investing so much political capital and energy to rescue wealthy Atlanta liberals from poorer liberals immediately to their south? 

There isn’t a Republican elected anywhere near the vicinity of Atlanta’s Buckhead district.  Creating a new city won’t generate a single Republican Senator, Representative, or even city council member.  As to the school board…the State constitution doesn’t allow new cities to create new school districts.  It’s an open and unresolved question if these students would remain in the City of Atlanta Schools or attend Fulton County Schools. 

If those supporting this bill answer the above question pretending that this isn’t about race, then the only other answer is to punish the existing City of Atlanta.  That punishment comes with a price.  The finances of the Capital are deep, complex, and heavily bonded.  Let’s pretend – as the sponsors of this city are – that the State will have no liability for taking away much of the tax base of our state’s capital. 

I fail to see the logic of how starving Atlanta’s tax base into near bankruptcy will lower crime, in Buckhead or in surrounding communities.  One could logically predict the opposite.

If the presumption is only the residents of Buckhead care about crime and supporting the police, how would you expect the remaining electorate in Atlanta to react to police funding? Or, more specifically, de-funding?

After four years of absentee leadership, Atlanta does have a new Mayor.  He’s saying the right things to the right people.  Let’s hope these words turn into action on crime and other city services.

In the interim, if the state wants to do something, go back to a problem that even former Mayor Kasim Reed openly and frequently talked about:  The revolving door on Fulton County’s jails.

Figuring out how to keep violent criminals and repeat offenders on theft charges behind bars would be a much better use of the state’s political capital to solve this problem.  It would be a much better solution than bankrupting the capital city out of spite.