Wednesday, December 13, 2000
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Wednesday, December 13, 2000 |
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Bost: Let the voters decide sales tax fate
By DAVE HAMRICK
Fayette County Commission Chairman Harold Bost said this week he may ask voters to do away with the local option sales tax in response to the ongoing debate over tax equity. "I intend in early January to ask the Board of Commissioners to call for a referendum to see if the people want to continue paying the 1 percent local option sales tax," he said. County commissioners recently used the sales tax, which is applied directly to alleviate property taxes, as ammunition in the two-year-old tax equity dispute, saying that city residents receive such a disproportionately large property tax rollback that it more than makes up for excess county taxes that city residents are paying. Bost says that city residents receive rollbacks both on their city and county taxes, and therefore get a bigger break from the sales tax. City leaders have maintained that their residents pay about $3 million more in taxes to the county than they receive in services, because many of the county's services are duplicated in the cities. The dispute came to a head after commissioners in November issued a letter to the cities stating that there is no tax inequity, and therefore no need to discuss the matter further. In a Nov. 30 meeting of county and city officials to try and resolve the issue, cities responded with a request for voluntary mediation. If the county refuses voluntary mediation, the cities said they may ask the Superior Court to order mandatory mediation. Mayor Bob Lenox of Peachtree City, who has spearheaded the argument on behalf of the cities, responded to the sales tax argument by saying the tax rollback has no impact on the city's budget. City residents receive rollbacks for both county and city taxes because they pay both county and city taxes, he said. The actual dollars that city residents are paying in taxes to the county and the actual services they receive are what matters, he said. "I don't care what the rollback is... that's all crap," Lenox told Bost during the Nov. 30 meeting. "What really matters is the actual amount of money that each homeowner has to pay." Peachtree City residents pay $9.2 million in taxes to the county, and receive $7.5 million in services, and that's the bottom line, he argued. According to an analysis prepared by Lenox, Fayetteville and Tyrone have similar deficits in service from the county. Bost said this week he has no intention of putting the cities' request for mediation on a County Commission agenda, adding that the commission's "final answer" was final. And if the sales tax is "crap," he added, maybe the county should do without it. If the voters agree to do away with the sales tax, said Bost, at that point he is ready and willing to mediate the tax equity dispute. "At that point we will have a tax inequity," he said. "I'll buy Lenox's $1.8 million then, because you don't have the sales tax inequity." Peachtree City, Bost argued, is receiving $2.8 million a year more than its proportionate share of the sales tax, and the rest of Fayette's cities are sharing in the spoils, negating the tax inequity. Ironically, Lenox argued that doing away with the sales tax would actually reduce the alleged tax inequity. He argued that the county would have to increase its property tax rate, only in the unincorporated areas, to make up the $7 million it currently receives in sales tax. That would mean an increase of about 6.5 mills to county residents, he said, about $500 for a $200,000 home. The cities also would have to increase property taxes to make up for the sales tax, but not nearly as much, he said. During the Nov. 30 meeting, Bost argued that the sales tax the county receives is spent in both the county and the cities. City leaders will probably get together before Christmas, Lenox said, to discuss whether to go forward with a formal action seeking a Superior Court order to mediate the dispute. "We need to talk about where we are, where we're going and what our options are," he said. "It's sure a hard decision to make, but it's just so much money."
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