Fulton County Turns to Private Debt Collectors
Fulton County is turning to private debt collectors in an effort to track down money owed by residents.
DeKalb County and cities including Atlanta, Alpharetta and Roswell have already enlisted help from private debt collectors.
Fulton County is joining those ranks, and has hired a team of firms based in Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania.
Critics however, are concerned about the potential for harassment by profit-driven debt collectors and the possibility of errors on debts that can be several years old.
Barbara Payne is the executive director of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation.
“When you hand it over to a company and you don’t have a lot of checks and balances you wonder what’s going to happen to the Fulton County taxpayer,” said Payne.
“A lot of times they end up not being fair and reasonable. The same way Park Atlanta is treating Atlantans – for profit, guerrilla–style, going through ticketing folks, in some cases arbitrarily and without cause.”
At stake is about $7 million in unpaid code enforcement and traffic tickets, which would amount to much needed revenue for the cash-strapped county.
Fulton estimates the effort will bring in an about $2 to $3 million. The private collection firms will keep about 20 percent of what they retrieve.
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