Letter to the Editor: Cost of annexation litigation vs. collected property taxes in Auburn and Service Delivery.
First let me state my opinion, It is wrong to annex unwilling property owners into a municipality or to prevent property owners who want to be annexed from doing so. The City of Auburn has now begun the process of annexing unwilling property owners and Barrow County has prevented willing property owners from being annexed into the City of Auburn in the past.
Barrow County has filed suit against Auburn for (in my opinion, wrongfully, not illegally) annexing property into the city. The court's ruling will probably be in Auburn's favor. Has Auburn complied with O.C.G.A. § 36-36-20 prior to litigation? Only an Open Records Request can tell.
The primary questions become, how many taxpayer dollars will be wasted in pursing this litigation to a court ruling and how many years of taxation on these properties will it require for Auburn to recoup the litigation costs before actually using the taxes collected for services or improvements? The same questions apply to Barrow County residents.
All cities in Barrow County were incorporated up to 22 years prior to Barrow County being established, the exception being Braselton (established 2 years after Barrow County). The Georgia legislature should pass laws that prevent counties from dictating the future of cities. A former commission chairman once told me that providing other than county police services, water, etc. was a city citizen's choice. While this may be true, the services provided by the cities in Barrow County were in place up to 22 years prior to county services.
How many cities in Barrow County would cease to exist through unification? A city cannot exist without providing at least three services. From 1993 to 1995, 187 cities lost charters for failure to meet the service requirements. Source http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2865
A handpicked 17-member citizens' unification commission, as suggested by County Commission Chairman Doug Garrison, can certainly investigate any savings and benefits of such a plan and offer their findings. A surefire method is already in place that will involve each household and more voting citizens' input than a commission, the petition. Why not circulate a petition in each city before wasting $5000.00 taxpayer dollars from each city.
Staff increases, cost of facilities, and additional taxation by the county will certainly outstrip any suggestion of cost savings to the taxpayer.
Len Cooper
Auburn
Unofficial City Hall