Skip to main content

What the Charter Says About a Milege Cap Doesn't Really Matter

Just a reminder for those who have felt "at ease" with the proposed cities of Lavista Hills and Tucker because they have something in their charter that says you will get a vote if they ever decide to take on more services or a higher tax rate. 

That might be what the charter says.  But, that's not what the city councils have to do.  If they want to take on a larger amount of your tax dollars, all they have to do is ask the legislature for an amendment to the original charter.  It can be written, passed and signed into law without ever gaining your input or consent. 

In fact, we don't have to look very far back to find an example of how the new cities that have started in Georgia have already betrayed the voters on this seemingly simple concept.

In Dunwoody, July  16, 2013, Reporter Kiri Walton described this situation:

Dunwoody Residents Demand Public Vote on Proposed Fire Dept. Funding  

Dunwoody citizens are speaking out about concerns their public vote would be revoked if the city decided to establish and fund its own fire department.
Dunwoody Residents Demand Public Vote on Proposed Fire Dept. Funding
...

The Dunwoody Charter Commission voted at its June 5 meeting to ask the state legislature to have the city take over the fire millage rate and allow the Dunwoody City Council to increase the fire tax rate up to 20 percent more, to cover fire department costs, without a public vote.
Two weeks later, the charter commission voted to instead recommend a charter amendment that would still allow the city to take over fire services from DeKalb County, but with the ability to impose a fire tax rate that does not exceed the three-year average of DeKalb's fire tax millage rate...without a public vote.

Dunwoody citizens were outraged that the charter amendment would remove their ability to vote on any changes with the fire tax rate, and they showed up en masse at the Dunwoody Charter Commission meeting on July 3.

You can read more on the Reporter Newspapers website here and even watch the video for yourself where outraged residents confront the appointed "charter commission" about what they are doing without authority or voter approval.  It's an eye opener, for sure!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tweak us out of LaVista Hills

This is a letter shared with the "Dekalb Strong" group.  You can join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/groups/DeKalbStrong . We didn't realize how easy tweaking was. “Tweak” and just like that, 2000 people are moved from one city proposal to another. (“LaVista Hills, Tucker border tweaked in Senate,” News, March 20). Our home is in Toco Hills on the southern edge of the proposed LaVista Hills and we’d like to be tweaked out of it.   North and north central DeKalb County residents have become pawns in the misguided ambitions of a few. With all the changes made by the Senate and House, it’s vital the feasibility of these proposals be revisited. The LaVista Hills boundaries have bled commercial property to the Tucker proposal and Brookhaven’s annexation of Executive Park. As reconfigured, LaVista Hills is almost entirely residential. Even including Toco Hills shopping center and Northlake mall, there appears to be insufficient commercial or industrial pr

DeKalb County School Board Member's Emails Show Support for Annexation

Here are just a few highlights of this investigative piece that was reported by Jeff Chirico, CBS Atlanta. Marshall Orson, a seated board member in DeKalb County, has to answer to some angry parents about his emails with supporters for "Together in Atlanta," a group pushing for annexation into the city of Atlanta. The annexation would take a DeKalb icon, the Druid Hills High School, and at least two elementary schools into the city limits of Atlanta, while still the residents would still technically reside in DeKalb County.  The Fernbank Science Center and Museum, Callenwalde Fine Arts Center and other parts of DeKalb County would also become new residents of "Atlanta in DeKalb."   State Rep. Karla Drenner (D - Avondale Estates) says she is shocked to learn that a school board member would seemingly favor something that could 'decimate' the school system. Annexation opponent Dawn Forman said Orson, as an elected board member, should be opposed t

Do These Families Feel "Welcomed" at DeKalb County's Schools?

Georgia counties where 50 or more unaccompanied minors were released from Jan. 1 through July, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families. Cherokee County 65 Cobb County 138 DeKalb County 347 Fulton County 64 Gwinnett County 266 Hall County 85 WHO knows the truth about what is happening in our schools and how quickly are they acting to protect their own neighborhoods, drawing their own borders and leaving everyone else holding the education tab for the immigrant population THEY helped bring here?    Do the new city proponents claim to know anything about a city - school connection?  Or do they do the typical  political  double speak and merely deny, deny, deny?  WHAT do they know that they are not telling the rest of us?  WHO do they know and HOW will they benefit?  If you do not know the answers then you are probably on the losing end of someone else's big stick! By  Mi