Buckhead City bills take major step forward in Georgia Senate

ATLANTA - A Georgia Senate committee has approved two bills that could allow neighborhood of Buckhead to secede from the city of Atlanta.

It's the first time that the controversial issue connected to crime and racial and economic division has moved forward under the Gold Dome.

In a vote that fell under party lines, the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee’s Republican majority pushed Senate Bills 113 and 114 through on 4-3 votes Monday, sending them to the full Senate for more debate.

If approved, Buckhead residents would vote to determine if they should break off from Atlanta and form their own city.

Speaking to the committee last week, Kelly Rodts, a Buckhead City supporter, said that "Atlanta taxes us to the nines" but that city police have failed to stop both petty and violent crime.

"This violence has reached a tipping point, and that is why we are all here today," Rodts said. "Buckhead is a target. We’re a target for criminals in the city, and Atlanta has not been able to protect us."

But opponents say a new city wouldn’t be able to stop criminals from coming to the area. They also say the plan doesn’t deal with major issues and could make crime worse by weakening the remaining parts of Atlanta.

"What is happening today is my constituents are being forced to eat a half-baked pie," Sen. Jason Esteves, an Atlanta Democrat who represents parts of Buckhead, said Monday.

He and others argue that although supporters of a new city are organized and noisy, they represent a minority of residents in the area. They pointedly note that none of the sponsors represent the city of Atlanta.

Estevez that the bills would have a disastrous effect on Atlanta and that details where children would go to school haven't been worked out.

He also claimed that the bills give the new city a sweetheart real at the expense of Georgia capital city by forcing Atlanta to sell a firestation, water treatment facility, and Chastain Park for pennies on the dollar, and fork over at least 20% of Atlanta's cash and investments to the new city.

But supporters say Buckhead residents have already helped pay for those properties and that previous newly incorporated cities have gotten a break when buying public land.

Sen. Randy Robertson, a Cataula Republican sponsoring the bills, says he’s championing the rights of citizens unfairly being ignored. He’s pointedly called on Dickens to meet with leaders of the Buckhead City Committee.

"Too many times inside this building and especially outside this building in local communities, elected officials forget who they work for. So when movements happen that remind elected officials who the real bosses are, then I have to support that," Robertson said.

Robertson likens creating Buckhead City to incorporating any other city. Suburban Atlanta has seen a wave of incorporations since 2005. While the legislation was bottled up last year, new Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones supported it while serving as a state senator and has allowed the bills to move forward.

"I’ve been down here 10 years and we’ve voted on referendums to create new cities around the state," Jones said in a statement. "I’m not going to shut down the conversation."

Opponents say taking apart an existing city is much more complicated than creating a new one, and that it’s even more complex to dismember Atlanta, which has its own school system and extra layers of local taxes and debt. Buckhead City proponents want a system whereby the new city would collect taxes and send them to Atlanta Public Schools, and the school system would continue to serve Buckhead. However, it’s unclear such a setup would be legal or feasible.

Opponents warn the divorce will give bond investors heartburn that could hurt every Georgia city’s ability to borrow money. When the Eagles Landing area was allowed to vote and ultimately rejected seceding from Stockbridge in 2018, bond rating agencies warned that splitting up cities was a risk for investors in all Georgia city bonds.

"Credit ratings and the municipal bond markets would be severely harmed in the state of Georgia," Ruchi Patel, a lobbyist for the Georgia Municipal Association, said Feb. 16.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.