The Northside Neighbor
April 03, 2002
– In the evening, he likes to have a cigar and retire to his computer to work on several books he is writing. By day, Arthur Ferdinand is the Tax Commissioner of Fulton County.
He defines his responsibilities as ensuring the revenue base to support the county. Before he took the position in 1997, Ferdinand described the county tax office as going through difficult times in the eyes of the public and producing a low tax collection rate. Now, he said he is pleased that tax collections are up, the county reserve fund is fully funded and the bond rating is up. He said he is also pleased he convinced the county commissioners to take garbage collection fees off property tax bills so low income and senior citizens can more easily pay their property taxes.
‘When I got here, sanitary fees were a danger to seniors when they couldn’t pay a property tax bill that was primary sanitary fees,” said Ferdinand. ‘In America, nobody loses a home if they can’t pay a utility bill, and yet we had people here whose liens were sold and properties were sold because they couldn’t pay garbage fees.”
