Some Henry County families want their elected leaders to figure out where the city of Stockbridge ends and the county begins, so their tax money is spent right.
Channel 2′s Tom Jones spoke to some in Henry County about the proposal to clean up the city of Stockbridge’s boundary lines.
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Some houses in Henry County are in the city of Stockbridge, while their neighbor’s houses, just a few steps away and on the same street, are part of the county.
Local leaders say the city boundaries need to be more consistent, and are giving county residents a chance to vote on new boundary lines for Stockbridge.
Rodney Hardy and some of his neighbors on Amanda Court live in unincorporated Henry County, but not all of them.
“As far as I know, there’s only one house on this whole street (that) is in the city limits of Stockbridge,” Hardy said.
It is the same situation on the next street; one house is in the city and the rest are in the county.
Councilmember Elton Alexander describes what he sees when he looks at the map of Stockbridge.
“It looks like a piece of Swiss cheese.” Alexander said.
Alexander says the current boundary lines pose a real problem for voters.
“We have people showing up at the polls who believe they live in the city of Stockbridge, but they live in the county.” Alexander said.
He told us that thousands of citizens are disenfranchised because they have no vote or say in the area that surrounds them.
Georgia state Sen. Emanuel Jones says House Bill 612 hopes to change that.
“It cleans up the boundaries of Stockbridge, which currently looks like spaghetti,” Jones said.
County residents will vote in November on whether or not to be included in the city of Stockbridge.
“And if the referendum doesn’t pass, then nothing changes,” Alexander said.
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Jones says county residents would get 57 city officers patrolling their communities. They will also get a say in city government and city services, and he says their taxes won’t go up.
Alexander says if approved, the November referendum would add some 6,700 citizens to the city; it would also split the city into separate districts.
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