Empty Nest
Sponsored section âşâşpage 20
HQ relocates Fulton County School System gets a new base of operations âşâşpage 8
Lights, camera, location
Raiders roll Defense comes up big in win over Cougars âşâşpage 24
Director goes locationscouting in North Fulton âşâşpage 31
&
Alpharetta-Roswell
Revue News
October 24, 2013 | northfulton.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 28, No. 43
NF Cities try to keep sales tax Court ruling threatens distribution By JONATHAN COPSEY jonathan@northfulton.com FULTON COUNTY, Ga. â A last-minute deal between 12 Fulton County cities and holdouts Atlanta and College Park has local cities breathing a cautious sigh of relief, after the countyâs sales tax distribution was put in jeopardy. The Local Option sales Tax (LOST) is collected by the county every year and distributed to the cities, largely based on population. The bigger the city, the bigger their slice of the pie. Only in this pie, most of the parties involved have to agree on a distribution. Itâs not entirely by population. In September, 12 of Fulton Countyâs cities agreed to the distribution. The idea is that a majority of the countyâs population must agree to any distribution. With Atlanta and JONATHAN COPSEY/Staff
Guests were encouraged to dress in traditional German garb for the event. From left are Lina Lee Parker, Tammy Tate, Manuela Myrich and Julian Tonesh.
Bulloch celebrates Oktoberfest ROSWELL, Ga. â It was all lederhosen and bratwurst at the annual âSip of the Southâ event Oct. 19 at Bulloch Hall. This yearâs theme was, fittingly, âOktoberfest,â and celebrated all things German. Cumming-based Gasthaus Tirol provided brats and wurst and all the sauerkraut one could handle while live music from Freewhee-
linâ got people moving. Bulloch Hall was home to the Bullochs, one of Roswellâs founding families and a prominent Southern clan. Mittie Bulloch married into the Roosevelt family and was mother to President Theodore Roosevelt. âJonathan Copsey
College Park opposed, the other 12 managed to just top 51 percent. When cities and counties cannot decide on a solution, they submit their opposing plans to a judge to decide. However; the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled the way this was settled is unconstitutional. âArbitration took the role of local government and gave that to the court,â said Alpharetta Deputy City Administrator James Drinkard. âBy creating that arbitration avenue [the Supreme Court] is saying itâs unconstitutional to leave it to a judge to decide.â In short, governments are in place to make such decisions, not judges. The problem comes with the governments of at least 17 counties and their cities
See LOST, Page 31
How the LOST funds get divvied up City
Previous %
New %
Previous $
New $
Net Change
Alpharetta
5.22
5.81
$12.4M
$13.7M
$1.3M
Atlanta
42.88
40.44
$101.8M
$96M
($5.8M)
Johns Creek
6.97
7.75
$16.5M
$18.4M
$1.9M
Milton
1.71
3.29
$4.0M
$7.8M
$3.8M
Roswell
8.8
8.92
$20.8M
$21.7M
$0.9M