Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivered a blow this week to the wealthy suburban Buckhead neighborhood’s effort to secede from the city of Atlanta over violent crime.
The issue is tentatively scheduled for a vote before the state legislature Thursday.
On Tuesday night, Kemp’s executive counsel David Dove outlined in a two-page memo with at least a dozen questions regarding Senate Bills 113 and 114, which passed in a Senate committee on Monday, marking the first time the secession legislation advanced out of committee in the Georgia General Assembly.
Dole demanded the governor’s Senate floor leaders, Bo Hatchett and Mike Hodges, evaluate the proposal, citing “constitutional and statutory challenges” which could “retailor the cloth of governance for Georgia’s municipalities in ways that will ripple into a future of unforeseen outcomes.”
ATLANTA HOMELESS MAN INDICTED IN DEADLY STABBING OF GRANDMA IN BUCKHEAD SUBURB PUSHING TO SECEDE OVER CRIME
Supporters of the secession, including Republican Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, say Atlanta is not doing enough to control crime and that Buckhead residents are not getting their tax money’s worth from municipal services. If they succeed, residents would vote on forming a new city in a referendum.
Dove questioned whether proposals to assign a portion of Atlanta’s bond debt to the new city would be legal and suggested that secessions could leave Atlanta and other cities unable to pay their debts. Dove said the plan could wreck the ability of Georgia cities to borrow money.
He also challenged the legality of the plans of Buckhead City proponents to collect taxes for the Atlanta city school system and continue enrolling students in it even after leaving Atlanta.
“How is this action constitutional given (1) Buckhead would lie outside the jurisdictional limits of Atlanta, (2) no referendum is proposed for residents to ratify such taxation, and (3) the Georgia Constitution fails to give any power to cities and…
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