§ 5-1. Authority of state legislature in connection with health and sanitation in Fulton County and Atlanta.

(a)

The General Assembly of Georgia shall have authority to determine and prescribe by general, local and special laws all the powers, responsibilities and limitations of Fulton County and the commissioners or other governing authority thereof both in the incorporated and unincorporated areas within its boundaries and throughout the City of Atlanta, located in Fulton County, in respect to health and sanitation, and outside of the incorporated areas within its boundaries in respect to police protection, fire protection and prevention, parks and recreational facilities, garbage and refuse collection and disposal, sewerage and drainage systems, water distribution systems, county streets and roads and other public works, the regulation and inspection of buildings, electrical installations, plumbing and other construction, airports, libraries, and the regulation of traffic. Without limiting the power granted above, the General Assembly is authorized to:

(1)

District said county or authorize the commissioners or other governing authority thereof to do so, without regard to uniformity of area or population, for the purpose of providing any of such services;

(2)

Empower the commissioners of said county to levy taxes or assessments, or both, on property or property owners to defray all or part of the cost of such services;

(3)

Provide that any of such services except county streets and roads and other public works shall be rendered by said county only through one (1) or more municipalities lying wholly or partially in said county, in which event the General Assembly shall require one (1) or more of such municipalities to supply such services on a cost basis at the request of the commissioners; and the municipalities in said county are hereby empowered to supply any of such services, inside or outside their corporate limits, any provision of their charters to the contrary notwithstanding;

(4)

Provide that the laws, ordinances, rules and regulations in force then or in the future in the City of Atlanta in respect to any function or service mentioned in this paragraph shall apply to all or any portion of the unincorporated area of said county, and that the violation thereof in such unincorporated area may be punished as for a misdemeanor and all fines collected therefor shall be paid to the City of Atlanta; and

(5)

Provide that said county shall have the duty or authority to perform functions and render services relating to public health and sanitation throughout the City of Atlanta, located in Fulton County; that the rules, regulations and orders relating to public health and sanitation in said county shall apply with the same force and effect in the City of Atlanta, located in Fulton County, or any part thereof in Fulton County; and that the violation of any such rule, regulation or order may be punished as for a misdemeanor and the fines collected for offenses committed in the City of Atlanta shall be paid to the City of Atlanta.

(b)

All of such powers may be exercised by the General Assembly without regard to uniformity and without being limited or restricted by any existing provisions of or amendment to this Constitution or any general or special laws heretofore enacted.

(c)

Fulton County, or the commissioners or other governing authority thereof, shall not render any of the services or perform any of the functions mentioned in paragraph (a) of this section, except health and sanitation, inside any incorporated area within its boundaries.

(d)

The authority conferred on the General Assembly by this amendment [section] shall be retroactive to January 1, 1951. Any act passed after January 1, 1951, germane to the subject matter of this amendment [section], shall be conclusively presumed to have been passed under the authority of this amendment [section]. It is declared that the authority conveyed to the General Assembly by this amendment [section] relates to only one (1) general subject matter, and the General Assembly is empowered, but not directed, to exercise such authority by one (1) law pertaining to all or any one (1) or more of said services, which law may be passed prior to the submission of this amendment [section] to the people.

(1951 Ga. Laws, page 828, § 1)

Editor's note

The above local constitutional amendment to Ga. Const. (1945), art. XI was continued in effect by 1986 Ga. Laws, page 4442.