State senator, Hiram mayor in dispute over bill that would dissolve city

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Hiram’s mayor and a state senator are trading conflicting accounts over whether the city’s dissolution was discussed during meetings between city leadership and the senator.

Senate Bill 630, sponsored by Sen. Jason Anavitarte, would transfer Hiram’s duties and obligations to Paulding County, eliminating the city’s current local government.

Hiram Mayor Frank Moran said Tuesday, “Yes, it was a blindside for us. We had a meeting with the senator, then we find out a couple weeks later, he puts an ad in the paper that he’s going to dissolve the city, which was not mentioned in the last meeting we had.”

Anavitarte said Wednesday that Moran’s account of events was “silly.”

“We’ve had multiple meetings. I think it’s just the mayor being untruthful, again, to the residents of Hiram,” Anavitarte said Wednesday. “We talked about dissolving the city in both meetings. We’ve been very transparent about this entire process and the public.”

Anavitarte said the proposal is based on financial concerns.

“In the audit, it shows they’re spending more than they’re bringing in, and in their city budget it shows that they’re borrowing money from the cash reserves, and their city manager, Jodi, says this has been a normal practice for the last couple of years,” Anavitarte said.

A 2025 third-party financial audit on the city said, “With the city not having property taxes as its primary source of revenue, it relies on diversified revenue loss in order to prevent unsustainable loss due to unforeseen event(s).”

The audit also said that during fiscal year 2025 the city used a “significant” amount of cash reserves because of higher operating costs and increased police and public works positions.

Moran admitted Tuesday that the city was short on operating funds.

“We already understood our finances were getting low because we haven’t had a property tax since 1976,” Moran said Tuesday.

“We’ve cut over $700,000 out of our operating budget so far,” he added.

Anavitarte disputed the significance of the cuts.

“$700,000 is just going to be the beginning of it,” Anavitarte said.

Anavitarte said the bill includes what he called a “cure period.”

“They have one year to basically get their finances in order, restructure their government, whatever they need to do, and in July of 2027, the city would be resolved,” Anavitarte said.

Residents spoke out against the bill Tuesday night.

“It’s either money or power behind this,” one resident said.

“Fight for what is yours and tell the senator to stop messing with our town,” another resident said.

Moran said Tuesday that property taxes may be unavoidable, regardless of whether the bill passes.

“It’s inevitable that we’ll have to go with a property tax. We haven’t had one in 50 years and we’ve had astronomical growth, so we’re going to have to do something to offset the budget,” he said.

“If the city of Hiram levies a property tax, that’s a tax on top of the county tax and on top of the school taxes,” Anavitarte said.

Anavitarte said he plans to keep speaking with city officials as the bill moves forward.