Fulton tax commissioner goes nuclear on AJC, state reps
Claims paper's parent company and state reps haven't disclosed they have had liens on properties
- Fulton County Tax Commissioner
- Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand
Over the last few days, the AJC published several pieces about Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand transferring tax liens to third parties.
They're interesting stories, and part of a multi-year series of articles about metro Atlanta property taxes that have scrutinized Ferdinand. The pieces serve a public good while also making homeowners grit their teeth with anger. Anti-Fulton state lawmakers will probably pick up the articles and use them as ammunition in their ongoing effort to crack down on the county. That includes legislation making the tax commissioner an appointed, not elected position.
That legislation and the recent AJC stories apparently didn't sit well with Ferdinand. This morning, CL was cc'ed on an email from the tax commissioner. Attached were scanned copies of letters to state Sen. Judson Hill, R-Marietta, and state Rep. Lynne Riley, R-Johns Creek, who chair the Fulton County legislative delegation under the Gold Dome.
In the letters (which we've embedded after the jump), Ferdinand says discussions about his salary - he reportedly made nearly $350,000 in 2011, making him Georgia's highest-paid elected official - have devolved into attacks on his character, which he claims is a "clear indication that this campaign for 'change and reform' solely directed at my office is more of a personal agenda, rather than a public one." He then claims that some of the actions by the AJC and state lawmakers are "simply retaliatory."
He goes on to say that the AJC failed to disclose in its articles that the commissioner's office has placed several liens in past years on properties owned by Cox Enterprises, the paper's parent company, and which were transferred to Vesta Holdings. Among those properties, Ferdinand says, was a "luxury hanger" at Fulton County Airport-Brown Field. He also notes that Cox Enterprises is the beneficiary of development authority exemptions, "a privilege usually reserved for new companies coming into the county, a practice now being challenged." Ferdinand says the exemptions helped Cox save more than $2 million in taxes. (I'm curious why Ferdinand didn't lob these accusations in an op-ed that appeared in the AJC a few days ago. We asked and will update if we hear word. UPDATE, 10:54 p.m. Ferdinand tells me he hadn't seen the liens at the time.)