New Bill Challenges Brookhaven Incorporation

If Republican state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven) has his way, area citizens could vote on creating a city of Brookhaven as early as July, 2012. 

But state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) has filed a bill that she hopes will delay any vote.

Oliver said a Brookhaven is "premature" and she wants her new House Bill 672 to create "a better discussion on what is the process for creating new cities and counties."

"I want to find out what the financial viability is," Oliver explained.

The would-be Brookhaven borders aren't set yet, but could include valuable land that would be a rich tax take for the new city and a loss to DeKalb.

"Brookhaven may be able to draw some borders that show it's economically viable. But that doesn’t give us information on how it impacts Chamblee, Dunwoody and unincorporated DeKalb," Oliver argued.

But Jacobs, Brookhaven's chief House proponent, said "the revenue side of the coin is right there in black and white in the [University of Georgia] Carl Vinson Institute Study for Brookhaven."

That study, commissioned by Brookhaven proponents, says a city sandwiched between Dunwoody, Chamblee, a portion of I-85 and the Fulton border could survive, perhaps even run a surplus, on the existing taxes and fees of the area. Some services, such as most courts, would stay with the county. Others, like police, would be created anew in the city.

"All that remains," said Jacobs, "the piece of information that is missing, is how much resources DeKalb is putting in Brookhaven and what it's spending on them.  That's a piece of information only DeKalb County knows."

Nothing is stopping DeKalb, he suggested, from commissioning their own study.

Jacobs acknowledged that there has been more than one proposal for borders. He said settling those is part of a fine-tuning process that's happening now with public input and viability studies.

"The point of forming cities is that we don’t plan the boundaries from the top down," Jacobs argued.  "Boundaries have a way of working themselves out.  That is exactly what happened with prior incorporations, particularly Dunwoody and Johns Creek."

Incorporating Brookhaven is not a popular idea with DeKalb's majority-Democrat group of state legislators. In the state legislature, GOP leaders will send the question straight to a vote of the full body.  That eliminates a pre-approval by the DeKalb delegation, something that happens often on legislation that affects only one county.

Oliver said skipping the delegation eliminates the value of home rule — rule at the local level. Jacobs countered that putting the question in front of Brookhaven citizens is the ultimate form of home rule.

The Decatur Democrat suggested studying other forms of government not now used in Georgia — such as the township or special land use districts — that do not come with the power to set tax rates that Brookhaven seeks.

No matter the data or the debate, it's not clear Oliver's bill can stop what looks like a slam dunk in the state legislature. Her bill requires any incorporation bill to mull in the state legislature during two annual sessions. 

Jacobs' Brookhaven bill already complies. It was filed earlier this year and can come up for a vote during the 40-day legislative session beginning in January, 2012. If the legislature approves, the public referendum is set for the general primary ballot in July, 2012.

The Republican majority in both the House and Senate could mean an easy first passage for Brookhaven.