Top Ten Reasons to Vote Yes for Brookhaven

1. Solid finances. We have more commercial area than unincorporated Dekalb county which is 21% commercial. 28% of Brookhaven's city footprint is commercial ranging from Perimeter summit in the north to the Buford Highway/ I-85 corridor in the south.

2. Two words - Local Control. From zoning decisions to resource allocation, all decisions that most impact you and your pocketbook will be made by people in your community. They will be accountable to you at the ballot box in a city of 49,000 people. A vast improvement over a distant government in a county of over 700,000.

3. Two more words - Millage Cap. Despite what you may have heard your taxes are not going to be going up if you vote to incoporate Brookhaven. Even with Dekalb Government's last minute shell game with regard to the HOST credit, Brookhaven will start with a small property tax cut required by the law set down in the city charter. This cap on taxes limits the size and scope of city government in the future and puts the power to increase taxes firmly in the hands of you, the Brookhaven voter.

4. Cityhood doubles your homestead exemption. The city charter doubles your current county homestead exemption from $10,000 to $20,000. Your current senior citizen homestead exemptions and tax breaks automatically transfer to the new city.

5. More police patrols. Regardless of what you may have heard, the city will be able to provide more and better police protection. The number of officers the city will hire will be determined by the city council you elect. We pay far more for police in Dekalb than we receive back in actual police coverage. Keeping our tax dollars local will free up our new city police department to dedicate the resources neccessary to prevent crime and more quickly respond to crime in progress.

6. Better parks. Again, by keeping more of the tax dollars we already pay to Dekalb county here in Brookhaven, we will able to reverse the chronic neglect of our parks and their maintenance. Our city parks can be the envy of the metro area.

7. Better roads. For non-police services the city charter is set up to provide city services through the competitive bidding process. Contactors hired to pave and maintain our roads and sidewalks will have an incentive to be prompt and to provide a quality product for Brookhaven citizens. The city will not be burdened with entrenched pensioned employees.

8. Buford Highway renewal. Brookhaven residents and businesses in and around this area deserve fair and consistent code enforcement and policing. City efforts in these areas will encourage healthy business and residential development in the Brookhaven section of Buford Highway. This fresh attention will ripple and benefit everyone in our community and Dekalb county as well.

9. A stronger voice for our schools. Our neighboring cities in Dunwoody and Chamblee have just begun discovering that they have a stronger voice with Dekalb schools. Our collective city voice can be used to have greater influence over the direction and policy of the county scools within the city footprint.

10. A new bright spot. Brookhaven will be your city within Dekalb. With our sizeable amount of park acreage, healthy blend of bucolic neighborhoods and business, large and small, Brookhaven will be Dekalb's new bright spot.

J. Max Davis