Summarizing a recent DeKalb Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting he moderated, Jim Galloway @
AJC reports
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on changes to the CEO position for DeKalb County: there is uncertainty as to what cityhood decisions the legislature will make next spring and thus, it's hard to envision what the County will look like going forward
"...outside of a few uncomplicated fixes, the re-making of DeKalb County’s form of government – something that both Gov. Nathan Deal and acting CEO Lee May want — will have to wait until 2015."
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on DeKalb's city hood movements: the (Republican-controlled) general assembly has supported the creation of new cities in the recent past, but the overlapping nature of the Lakeside, Briarcliff and Tucker proposals creates political land mines:
"Favor one city-building group in this Republican-rich section of DeKalb, and you’re bound to tick off the two others. In an election year, that causes second thoughts."
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on the erosion of the County's tax base: Decatur state representative Mary Margaret Oliver expects the trend to create new cities will continue but she warns against
"a Fulton County-style stampede in which the first communities to become cities grab the most lucrative tax bases – leaving the county government and other cities to survive on leftovers.
The current land-grab craziness is bad for everyone..."
That last item reads the same whether you talk about cityhood or annexation.
See the whole article at @
AJC.
