Fulton County is governed by a seven-member
board of commissioners, whose members are elected from
single-member districts. They serve staggered four-year terms. The county has a
county manager system of government, in which day-to-day operation of the county is handled by a manager appointed by the board. The chairman of the Board of Commissioners is elected
at-large for the county-wide position. The vice chairman is elected by peers on a yearly basis.
United States Congress Georgia General Assembly Georgia State Senate Georgia House of Representatives Politics Atlanta is the largest city in Fulton County, occupying the county's narrow center section and thus geographically dividing the county's northern and southern portions. Atlanta's last major annexation in 1952 brought over into the city, including the affluent suburb of
Buckhead. The movement to create a city of
Sandy Springs, launched in the early 1970s and reaching fruition in 2005, was largely an effort to prevent additional annexations by the city of Atlanta, and later to wrest local control from the
county commission. Fulton County is one of the most reliably Democratic counties in the United States. It has voted Democratic in every presidential election since
1876 except those of
1928 and
1972; in the latter,
George McGovern did not win a single county in Georgia. In 2020, Joe Biden won 72.6% of the vote in Fulton County. The demographic character of the Democratic Party has changed, as conservative whites, previously its chief members in the South, have mostly shifted to the Republican Party. In Fulton County, Democrats are composed primarily of liberal urbanites of various ethnicities and a growing contingent of suburban voters. Fulton is served by three Representatives in the
House:
Nikema Williams, who represents the core of
Atlanta,
Lucy McBath, representing western portions of the county; and
Rich McCormick, representing the northernmost regions including
Johns Creek and
Alpharetta.
Taxation Geographically remote from each other, the northern and southern sections of the county have grown increasingly at odds over issues related to taxes and distribution of services. Residents of the affluent areas of North Fulton have increasingly complained that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners has ignored their needs, taking taxes collected in North Fulton, and spending them on programs and services in less wealthy South Fulton. In 2005, responding to pressure from North Fulton, the
Georgia General Assembly directed Fulton County, alone among all the counties in the state, to limit the expenditure of funds to the geographic region of the county where they were collected. The Fulton County Commission contested this law, known as the "Shafer Amendment" after Sen.
David Shafer (
Republican from
Duluth), in a
lawsuit that went to the
Georgia Supreme Court. On June 19, 2006, the Court upheld the law, ruling that the Shafer Amendment was constitutional. The creation of the city of
Sandy Springs stimulated the founding of two additional cities, resulting in
no unincorporated areas remaining in north Fulton. In a
domino effect, the residents of southwest Fulton voted in referendums to create additional cities. In 2007, one of these two referendums passed and the other was defeated, but later passed in 2016.
Municipalization Since the 1970s, residents of
Sandy Springs had waged a long-running battle to incorporate their community as a city, which would make it independent of county council control. They were repeatedly blocked in the state legislature by Atlanta Democrats, but when control of state government switched to suburban Republicans after the 2002 and 2004 elections, the movement to charter the city picked up steam. ,
Sandy Springs The General Assembly approved creation of the city in 2005, and for this case, it suspended an existing state law that prohibited new cities (the only type of municipality in the state) from being within of an existing one. The citizens of Sandy Springs voted 94% in favor of ratifying the
city charter in a
referendum held on June 21, 2005. The new city was officially incorporated later that year at midnight on December 1. city hall Creation of Sandy Springs was a catalyst for
municipalization of the entire county, in which local groups would attempt to incorporate every area into a city. Such a result would essentially eliminate the county's
home rule powers (granted statewide by a
constitutional amendment to the
Georgia State Constitution in the 1960s) to act as a
municipality in unincorporated areas, and return it to being entirely the local extension of state government. In 2006, the General Assembly approved creation of two new cities,
Milton and
Johns Creek, which completed municipalization of North Fulton. The charters of these two new cities were ratified overwhelmingly in a referendum held July 18, 2006. Voters in the
Chattahoochee Hills community of southwest Fulton (west of Cascade-Palmetto Highway) voted overwhelmingly to incorporate in June 2007. The city became incorporated on December 1, 2007. The General Assembly approved a proposal to form a new city called
South Fulton. Its proposed boundaries were to include those areas still unincorporated on July 1, 2007. As a direct result of possibly being permanently
landlocked, many of the existing cities proposed
annexations, while some communities drew-up
incorporation plans. Voters in the area defined as the proposed city of South Fulton overwhelmingly rejected cityhood in September 2007. It was the only remaining unincorporated section of the county until the residents voted in November 2016 to incorporate as the city of
South Fulton, Georgia. Prior to that vote North Fulton, which is overwhelmingly Republican, and members of the state legislature, had discussed forcing South Fulton residents to incorporate as a city in order to force Fulton County out of the municipal services business.
Secession Some residents of suburban north Fulton have advocated since the early 2000s that they be allowed to
secede and re-form
Milton County, after the county that was absorbed into Fulton County in 1932 during the
Great Depression. Fulton County, in comparison to the state's other counties, is physically large. Its population is greater than that of each of the six smallest
U.S. states. The demographic make-up of Fulton County has changed considerably in recent decades. The northern portion of the county, a suburban area, is among the most affluent areas in the nation and is majority white. It was formerly a
Republican stronghold, but has seen a shift toward the Democratic Party since the early 2010s. In 2018,
Lucy McBath won the 6th Congressional District, the majority of which is in North Fulton. The central and southern portion of the county, which includes the city of Atlanta and its core
satellite cities to the south, is overwhelmingly
Democratic and majority black. It contains some of the poorest sections in the metropolitan area, but also has wealthy sections, particularly in Midtown Atlanta, many east Atlanta neighborhoods, and in the suburban neighborhoods along Cascade Road beyond I-285.
Cascade Heights and
Sandtown, located in the southwest region of Fulton County, are predominantly affluent African American in population. The chief opponents to the proposed division of the county comes from the residents of south Fulton County, who say that the proposed separation is
racially motivated. State Senator
Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat and a member of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, very strongly opposed the plan to split the county. "If it gets to the floor, there will be blood on the walls", Fort stated. "As much as you would like to think it's not racial, it's difficult to draw any other conclusion", he later added. In 2006 a political firestorm broke out in Atlanta when State Senator
Sam Zamarripa (Democrat from Atlanta) suggested that the cities in North Fulton be allowed to secede and form Milton County in exchange for Atlanta and Fulton County consolidating their governments into a new "Atlanta County". South Fulton residents were strongly opposed to Fulton County's possible future division.
Taxes Fulton County has a 7% total
sales tax, including 4% state, 1%
SPLOST, 1%
homestead exemption, and 1%
MARTA. Sales taxes apply through the entire county and its cities, except for Atlanta's additional 1% Municipal Option Sales Tax to fund capital improvements to its combined
wastewater sewer systems (laying new pipes to separate
storm sewers from
sanitary sewers), and to its
drinking water system. Fulton County has lowered its general fund millage rate by 26% over an eight-year period. In early 2017, the state's first (and so far only) fractional-percent sales taxes took effect in Fulton. Atlanta added an additional 0.5% for MARTA and 0.4% T
SPLOST for other transportation projects, while anti-
transit Republican legislators from north Fulton blocked a countywide referendum on improving and extending MARTA, and instead allowed only a vote on a 0.75% TSPLOST for more roads in the areas outside Atlanta. This puts the total sales tax at 8.9% in Atlanta and 7.75% in the rest of the county, with 4% less on
groceries.
Services Fulton County's budget of $1.2 billion funds an array of resident services. With 34 branches, the
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System is one of the largest library systems in Georgia.
Human services programs include one of the strongest
senior center networks in metro Atlanta, including four multi-purpose senior facilities. The county also provides funding to
nonprofits with FRESH and Human Services
grants.
Law enforcement The responsibilities of the Fulton County Sheriff's Office include
process serving, providing security at county buildings, courtrooms, jail and other public areas, and administration of the
Fulton County Jail. In 1992
Jacquelyn Harrison Barrett was elected Sheriff, making her the first African-American woman to serve as Sheriff in the United States. However, Barrett was suspended from office in 2004 by governor
Sonny Perdue. ==Transportation==