The City of Sandy Springs

The big news around these parts is that yesterday, by way of referendum, the community of Sandy Springs (a suburb north of Atlanta) finally became it's own incorporated city, after decades of fighting for that status. 93% of voters voted for incorporation. This makes Sandy Springs, GA the state's largest city (if anyone is curious about Georgia geography, it is preceded by Athens, Macon, Savannah, Columbus, Augusta, and finally Atlanta as the largest city in the state). So why did Sandy Springs residents want cityhood? Residents have argued that Fulton County, in which Atlanta is the county seat and takes up the most land area, did not reciprocate in services the amount that those residents paid in taxes. In other words, they want what they are paying for. Case in point:

"We have been abused, misused, malnourished and mistreated," said Gabriel Sterling of Sandy Springs. "This is not surprising. They have treated us like a cash cow forever and they didn't plan for this. I expect them to want to keep the cash cow."

The list of grievances are long: runaway taxes, poor service, out-of-control development, north Fulton taxes paying for south Fulton services; and downright hostility by county officials to Sandy Springs' wishes.

While that sounds like a good idea, with proponents of cityhood citing "taxation with representation" and all that libertarian jazz, it is certainly not good for Fulton County and the city of Atlanta. Essentially, what we have here is an upper-class community that exists primarily because of white flight from the city of Atlanta, and now wants to consolidate its tax monies.

This is like California deciding to secede from the Union because even though it pays more taxes than any other state of the country, its returns are the 9th least in the nation (in other words, for every dollar the federal government the state pays in taxes, it gets a return of $0.81. Is this unjust? Certainly not; poorer and communities and poorer states (primarily in "red states") need the investment much more than states like California (and other relatively affluent "blue states").

To illustrate (swiped from TaxProf Blog):

States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

1. D.C. ($6.17)
2. North Dakota ($2.03)
3. New Mexico ($1.89)
4. Mississippi ($1.84)
5. Alaska ($1.82)
6. West Virginia ($1.74)
7. Montana ($1.64)
8. Alabama ($1.61)
9. South Dakota ($1.59)
10. Arkansas ($1.53)

States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
6. Minnesota ($0.77)
7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)

Notice a difference in which kinds of states hold the greatest federal tax burden? So my question is, if we don't apply that kind of dollar-per-dollar standard when it comes to taxation around the country, why should it be applied to Sandy Springs? If they have problems with county services, they *do* have a county commissioner (his name is Tom Lowe).

The incorporation of Sandy Springs is unfair to Atlanta; the tax burden on people that are not as affluent as those in Sandy Springs can only get worse as more and more people move to the area, utilizing Atlanta and Fulton County's service without actually financially contributing to their maintainance. Metropolitan Atlanta encompasses ten counties after all (and most of those people commute to Fulton County for work on a daily basis).

So how will this affect Fulton County? (from the first AJC article):

County officials opposed the vote because they feared the county would lose $68 million a year, which could force them to cut services in unincorporated neighborhoods south of Atlanta.

The County Commission chairwoman, Karen Handel, a Republican who supported Sandy Springs' right to decide its future, says county leaders now need to change the way business is done.

"I view this as an opportunity to re-evaluate service delivery for our citizens," Handel said Tuesday.

One interesting proposal, put forth by state Senator Sam Zamarippa, is to reconfigure Fulton County altogether, creating two new counties, Atlanta County and Milton County in the north. Good luck to the people in Sandy Springs though, they're gonna need it:

In Sandy Springs, advocates for cityhood now have their work cut out for them.

A rookie city council has to build a municipal infrastructure — from police and fire departments to a tax office — for a population of 85,000, which would make it the second-largest city, behind Atlanta, in Fulton County.

Leaders have to build a government from the ground up that will operate on $75 million in 2006, when the new city would have to begin providing services to residents. Proposed budget figures already have ignited debate.

The first mayor and council probably will reflect the community's Republican voting record and will have to negotiate service contracts and other policy matters with the Democrats who dominate the Fulton County Commission.