http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/georgia-county-fights-to-retain-the-right-to-raise-its-own-taxes.html
The Democratic-controlled county government that’s home to Atlanta is fighting Republican legislators determined to make it the only county in Georgia unable to raise its own taxes.
Fulton County leaders last month approved the first property-tax increase in 23 years to close a shortfall of more than $35 million in its $625.4 million general-fund budget. In a move being watched by credit analysts, six Republican lawmakers from affluent areas sued, saying the increase violates a law passed last year that forbids Fulton County -- and only Fulton County -- from raising taxes.
“‘Why’ is the million-dollar question,” said John Eaves, chairman of the county commission. “We’re one of 159 counties in Georgia. To me, it’s the height of partisan politics.”
The fight is the latest episode in a long civil war between more prosperous, whiter and Republican suburbs in north Fulton County and blacker, poorer and more Democratic areas to their south. The struggle, which includes a so-far unsuccessful push to secede, echoes those in Southern U.S. cities including Memphis, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama. Affluent areas there have worked to divorce local governments and school systems that include the poor.
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