By: Randy Evans
Given Georgia’s direction, it is difficult to imagine too much more to demand of Gov. Nathan Deal and the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly as the planning for the 2014 General Assembly begins next month. After all, Area Development Magazine and Site Selection Magazine both list Georgia as one of the top five states in the country to do business.
According to the Tax Foundation, Georgia has decreased its tax burden over the last decade more than any other state. Adjusted for inflation, Georgia’s government spends 14 percent less per person than 10 years ago. In part, this is a result of 9,000 fewer state employees than five years ago.
Georgia has balanced its budget every year AND increased its “Rainy Day Fund” to $378 million. While other states teeter on the edge of insolvency, Georgia’s bond rating (according to all three major bond rating agencies) is AAA, the highest rating a state can achieve.
And, all of this has happened amidst one of the greatest economic slowdowns since the Great Depression with one of the slowest recoveries in modern economic history. These are no small things.
But, Georgia continues to grow and change. According to the last census, Georgia’s population had increased by more than 1.5 million people — an 18 percent increase. Since then, Georgia has been continuously growing faster than the national average and, more significantly, changing constantly in every way imaginable.
Yet, as Georgia changes, Georgia government must change too. In part, this means bold steps by letting go of structures that have existed for over a century — dating back in large part to mindsets pre-dating the Civil War. Here is but one example.
Georgia has 159 counties (the maximum under Georgia’s constitution). In fact, Georgia (the 24th-largest state by land size) has the second-highest number of counties in the nation, second behind only Texas. Of course, Texas is in fact the second-largest state by land size, (more than four times larger than Georgia), and has two and half times the population of Georgia.
Contrary to popular perception, this is not a Southern thing. In contrast to Georgia’s 159 counties, Alabama and Florida each have 67 counties, and South Carolina has only 46.
It is not a population thing. Two of the country’s two most populous states — California and New York — have only 58 and 62 counties, respectively.
It is not a geographic size thing. Alaska (the largest state) has 13 counties and Montana (fourth-largest, following Texas and California) has 56 counties.
No, this is a Georgia thing, and it is expensive — too expensive.
One hundred fifty-nine counties translates into lots and lots of government employees with 159 county governments, 159 sheriffs, 159 clerks, 159 tax commissioners, 159 probate judges, and so on and so on. Every county has a courthouse, school system and county government.
Notably, this is not something locked in stone that cannot be fixed. In fact, counties have come and gone throughout Georgia’s history. In 1778, 11 counties were dissolved. Campbell County and Milton County were merged into Fulton County in 1932. More recently, five counties merged with cities to form consolidated governments: Athens-Clarke County; Augusta-Richmond County; Columbus-Muscogee County; Cusseta-Chattahoochee County and Macon-Bibb County.
The fact is there is no rhyme or reason for all of these counties that still exist today.
After all, Georgia counties are not based on population. There are counties with fewer than 2,500 people (Taliaferro — 2,077 and Webster — 2,390) and counties with more than 750,000 (Fulton, 816,006 and Gwinnett, 757,104).
Counties are not based on size. There are small counties (Clayton, 143 square miles and Glascock, 144 square miles) and big (Ware, 903 square miles and Burke, 831 square miles).
So why all these counties? Rumor has it that Georgia county lines were originally drawn to make it possible for a farmer to travel by mule-drawn buggy to the county seat and be back home again in one day. Of course, if true, this explanation begs the question of why continue a system that is so outdated and so expensive?
Unfortunately, the one thing that all of these counties have in common is that they cost money — lots of taxpayer money. And, within each county, there are lots of cities, towns and villages. At last count, there were over 500 municipalities in Georgia, which when combined with 159 counties, creates a total of almost 700 governments taxing Georgians. Of course, this does not count the state of Georgia itself and then the federal government.
Georgia started with only eight counties. While appealing, such a target would be unrealistic. But, the states that are of the approximate land size of Georgia (24th) have far fewer counties and much higher populations. They are Florida (22nd) — 67 counties; Illinois (25th) — 102 counties; and New York (27th) — 62 counties.
Applying these numbers, Georgia should be able to realistically cut the number of county governments in half. The time has come to replace outdated county lines based on the distance a mule-drawn buggy can travel.
The future is here; Georgia just needs to take that step. It is time for some bold steps.