By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Consulting firm Governmental Solutions Inc. soon will begin working to separate the sheep from the goats when it comes to governmental services in Fayette County, if county commissioners agree.

County and city leaders Thursday agreed to hire the company to settle a dispute revolving around the question: Do city residents pay more in taxes than they are receiving in county services, or is it residents of unincorporated areas who are subsidizing services that city dwellers receive?

Members of the county's FUTURE Committee (Fayette United Team to Use Resources Effectively) have been pondering the question ever since officials in Tyrone and Peachtree City suggested early in 1999 that their residents don't receive enough county services to account for the taxes they pay.

Tyrone Town Councilman Ronnie Cannon spoke out after the county declined to help fund a recreation project in the town, saying residents are short-changed about $400,000 a year. Peachtree City officials later released figures suggesting their residents pay about $2 million more in taxes than they receive in services.

County officials have answered that they believe residents of unincorporated Fayette actually subsidize the services city residents receive.

It's an old argument. Georgia cities have argued for decades that their residents are “double taxed,” paying taxes both to the county and to the city for services that are duplicated by both governments.

Radical officials have suggested consolidation of governments to solve the problem, while others have opted for a more conservative approach, looking for areas where county and city governments can combine services or reach cooperative agreements to reduce overall taxes.

Fayette's FUTURE Committee had begun work on that problem several months before the state General Assembly in 1998 approved House Bill 489, which requires that local governments come up with cooperative agreements to end duplication of services.

The FUTURE Committee last week agreed to hire Government Solutions to study finances and services in the local governments and settle the dispute once and for all.

Fayette County's share of the $19,500 cost of the study will be more than $9,000, and expenditures larger than $5,000 must be approved by vote of the County Commission. Once that vote is taken, possibly during the group's Jan. 13 meeting, the work can proceed.