Fulton May Lose Sugar Daddy

[Hobbit]

For those of you who don't know, Fulton County, GA, is the county in which Atlanta resides. It is, by far, the largest county in Georgia, espeically since it absorbed Milton County in the Great Depression, which now forms the northern section of the county. Locally, Fulton County has become the land of race baiters and rampant nanny stating. In the latest elections, radio commercials in the entire Metro Atlanta area proclaimed that only Democrats could prevent police dogs and fire hoses from being unleashed on the county's black majority (despite the fact that Atlanta earned the name "The City Too Busy to Hate" when the civil rights movement passed it uneventfully). The county commission also regularly passes spending bills that amount to little more than vote-buying programs and most of the schools are terrible.

Well, the residents of northern Fulton County are sick of it, and understandably so. They are 29% of the population, but have virtually no representation in government, despite paying 42% of the property tax. The race baiters have snagged virtually all of the remaining 71% of the county's population and have little incentive to appeal to the affluent section of the county. As such, public officials tend to ignore all of their requests and spend little to nothing on public works on the section that provides nearly half of their funding. As such, north Fulton County, which was Milton County prior to the Depression, has petitioned to be seperated from Fulton County and renamed Milton County.

This has been a potential move for years, and for good reason. With little police protection from the already strained Fulton County cops (which have some of the highest fatality rates in the country) and little money going to strengthening it, underfunded schools necessitating private schools, and almost nothing in the way of public works, the residents of Fulton County want to take their $193 million is property tax and leave, with the hopes that maybe some of it will be spent on them for a change.

However, this would take that $193 million away from race baiting power mongers in Fulton County and force them to actually confront the poverty stricken hell-hole they have created with their vote-buying programs, so they're falling back on the only thing they know, race. Opponents of the bill fail to address the horrible corruption and misappropriation of funds in Fulton County, but instead claim that the snobby, rich residents of North Fulton just want a line drawn on a map that seperates them from the poor black people who aren't at all responsible for the horrible crime rate and just want to get along.

I, for one, applaud North Fulton for tossing aside political correctness to protect their own interests from corrupt, black racists who just want their money to buy votes, and I hope the state legislature can get the swing votes it needs to get the 2/3 majority required to redraw county lines.

On a side note, the typical response to a letter to Fulton County polticians (local, state, and federal) from a North Fulton address is, "I don't care what you think because I don't need your lousy vote to win." This was even the form letter sent to such addresses from Cynthia McKinney's office.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_on_re_us/atlanta_split

 

[theHawk]

And if the Democratic Congress gets their way, it will be this way all across the country.

 

[William Joyce]

Without white money, blacks slide back to their natural jungle status. So they will protest this, for sure. It's basically racial extortion: give us your money, and we won't riot in the streets. Blacks are criminals in their political demands as much as they are in a late-night carjacking. They are a complete drain on our society.

 

[Hobbit]

Without white money, blacks slide back to their natural jungle status. So they will protest this, for sure. It's basically racial extortion: give us your money, and we won't riot in the streets. Blacks are criminals in their political demands as much as they are in a late-night carjacking. They are a complete drain on our society.

Not entirely. One thing I forgot to mention is that North Fulton has one of the large black middle class demographics in the nation, and they're also behind the split. They also hold the poor blacks in Fulton County in contempt becuase they, too, started in the projects but decided that hard work and education would lead to a far better life than a racist power struggle would.

 

[Jennifer.Bush]

ATLANTA - A potentially explosive dispute in the City Too Busy to Hate is taking shape over a proposal to break Fulton County in two and split off Atlanta's predominantly white, affluent suburbs to the north from some of the metropolitan area's poorest, black neighborhoods.

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Legislation that would allow the suburbs to form their own county, to be called Milton County, was introduced by members of the Georgia Legislature's Republican majority earlier this month.

Supporters say it is a quest for more responsive government in a county with a population greater than that of six states. Opponents say the measure is racially motivated and will pit white against black, rich against poor.

"If it gets to the floor, there will be blood on the walls," warned state Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat and member of the Legislative Black Caucus who bitterly opposes the plan. Fort added: "As much as you would like to think it's not racial, it's difficult to draw any other conclusion."

The legislation calls for amending the Georgia Constitution to allow the return of Milton County, which succumbed to financial troubles during the Depression and was folded into Fulton County in 1932.

The former Milton County is now mostly white and Republican and one of the most affluent areas in the nation. Atlanta and its southern suburbs are mostly black, are controlled by Democrats and have neighborhoods with some of the highest poverty rates in America. (Buckhead, a fashionable Atlanta neighborhood of clubs, restaurants and mansions, would remain in Fulton County.)

"The only way to fix Fulton County is to dismantle Fulton County," said state Rep. Jan Jones, the plan's chief sponsor. "It's too large, and certainly too dysfunctional, to truly be considered local government."

Jones, a former marketing executive who lives in the Fulton suburb of Alpharetta, cited the county's troubled library and public transit systems and a jail that was taken over by a federal judge because it was filthy and unsafe. He denied the move is racially motivated.

Don Petree, the 62-year-old owner of Don's Hairstyling in Roswell, another northern Fulton suburb, said many of his customers "feel like they're not being taken care of like they should be with the tax dollars they're spending. I think there's some truth to that."

Milton County would have a population of about 300,000, instantly making it Georgia's fifth-largest county.

Residents of north Fulton represent 29 percent of the county's population of 915,000 but pay 42 percent of its property taxes, according to a local taxpayers group. A split would lead to the loss of $193 million in property taxes alone for Fulton County.

About 25 miles to the south in downtown Atlanta, the Rev. J. Allen Milner said he is afraid the tax revenue loss would have a devastating effect on those who need government help the most.

"If you take that money out of their coffers, human services will suffer greatly," said Milner, a black man who runs a homeless mission and is pastor of the Chapel of Christian Love Church.

Critics of a split also worry about the future of Grady Memorial Hospital and the Atlanta area's MARTA commuter-rail system — both of which have contracts with the county.

In addition, some warn that a breakup of Fulton could harm Atlanta's international reputation as a progressive city and hurt its appeal as a business, entertainment and convention destination.

While other Southern cities erupted in violence a generation ago, Atlanta came through the civil rights movement with little strife, earning the nickname The City Too Busy to Hate. It is now home to one of the nation's largest black middle-class communities.

"This would send a clear messages to companies around the country that Atlanta may not be as progressive as it would like people to think," Fort said.

The measure would require the support of two-thirds of both the House and Senate. Then it would have to put to a statewide vote. Also, residents of what would become Milton County would have to endorse the plan.

While Republicans have majorities in both chambers, they would need to win over three Democrats in the Senate and 14 in the House to get it passed.

The legislation has support from some of the Legislature's key leaders. Republican House Speaker Glenn Richardson has referred to his top lieutenant, Rep. Mark Burkhalter, as "the member from Milton County."