By Stephanie Johns
Staff Writer

Madison Councilman Michael Naples offered clarification about a comment made during the recent Hometown Connection meeting in which Naples urged State 112 District Rep. Doug Holt and District 25 Senator Burt Jones (R) to preserve home rule.
At that meeting he said that home rule has been under attack and gave an example pertaining to tax collections and remittance.
“We asked the tax commissioner to collect our taxes and mail a check to us as taxes come in,” he said, adding that one county told them they could not do that.
Naples later clarified that the county that told them they could not do that was not Morgan County.
He said Fulton County was one of the counties affected when a Georgia State Legislator proposed prohibiting municipalities from contracting with their county tax commissioners.
“Counties should be able to make that decision on their own,” he said. “This is home rule.”
He said the legislation was defeated during the last legislative session.
City Manager David Nunn said that if the legislation had been approved it would have thrown a wrench in the works for Madison.
“We were in favor of it not going through,” he said.
He explained that Madison contracts with the Morgan County tax commissioner to do all of the cities taxes.
“It’s a great, efficient system,” he said.

Printed in the December 20, 2012 edition