Sandy Springs, Georgia: The City that Outsourced Everything

While cities across the country are cutting services, raising taxes and contemplating bankruptcy, something extraordinary is happening in a suburban community just north of Atlanta, Georgia.

Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities.

This is the story of Sandy Springs, Georgia—the city that outsourced everything.

Approximately 8 minutes.

Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning.

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• Category

  News & Politics

[Toddplatzer]

I really don't see how this, in the long term, can prove to be anything but successful. Good work, Sandy Springs! What can I say, I guess we need to get more democrats out of local government. Is it really that simple?

[daveinmi]

The Marxists aren't going to like this.

[Todd Platzer]

Now you're just being annoying Nicholas. No one is missing anything. Small government-better.

[azbacnikorange]

Yep! Just ask Somalia!



[azbacnikorange]

Wow! Ok all these furloughs and municipal budgetary problems are created by paleoconservative values. When drive money to the top by huge corporate subsidies, slash upper income taxes while at the same time allowing middle and lower class wages to stagnate or fall then you are going to reduce tax revenue. Now that we have budget shortfalls SUDDENLY austerity sounds like a good idea.

[George Doughty]

Nobody GETS pensions or health benefits, they PAY for them. Funding your own plans is cheaper and gets your far more return. Grow up & move away from the teat.

[Hazen Eckert]

There is hope for America!

[MyDormantSoul]

Yes, the police and firemen do. Why hire anymore than that for a city? All you do is rack up large deficits to meet their demands.

[miriammanley]

So public workers don't get pensions or health benefits - wow what an amazing model! NOT

[HamiltoBergeran]

It's so exciting to see a model like the one adopted by Sandy Springs come to successful fruition. Further evidence that small government leads to large success!

[HamiltoBergeran]

That's an excellent point, Nicholas, spot on! The reason Sandy Springs was successful was because they went private and the government got completely out of the picture. For the record, the ideology of democrats is to increase the size and power of government which, in practice, proves cancerous and leads to economic collapse. Look at California. The point of this video is not an attack on democratic principle, but an example of what sound business principles can do in any context.