Wednesday, December 12, 2001
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Wednesday, December 12, 2001 |
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Historic county-cities tax equity mediation to begin Monday By DAVE HAMRICK With city and county leaders from all over the state looking on, elected officials of Fayette County and its cities will begin their ground-breaking tax equity mediation Monday. Mediator Tim Keim will meet with the governing bodies of the county, Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone at 8 a.m. to try and put salve on wounds that have festered for more than three years. Last week, Keim met with attorneys for all sides, who "familiarized him with the situation," said assistant County Attorney Dennis Davenport. City leaders have claimed that their residents pay about $2 million a year in taxes to Fayette County for services they don't receive, while county leaders claim that the opposite is true residents of unincorporated Fayette subsidize services for city residents. Attempts to resolve the issue through the Association of Fayette County Governments failed, and a separate committee charged with fostering cooperation between cities and county also failed to find agreement. "We're definitely going to break some ground here in the next few months," said County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn. "There's very little case law to go on." "We are on the leading cusp," agreed Fayetteville Mayor Kenneth Steele. "There will be a lot of people watching. Dunn said leaders in the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia will be following the proceedings with interest. The court-ordered mediation will be the first ever under a 1996 state law that requires cities and counties to cooperate to save taxpayer dollars, and to eliminate inefficiency. One wrinkle of the law, the well-known House Bill 489, is a section that forbids taxing city residents for services that are primarily for residents of unincorporated areas. Early this year, the three cities cited that provision and filed a request for mandatory mediation, also provided for in the legislation. County attorneys moved to dismiss the request, saying the cities already agreed to a service delivery strategy, and should wait to mediate the dispute when that strategy expires. But a visiting judge last month ruled that mediation must go forward, and appointed Keim, a professional mediator, to tackle the case. "My goal," said Fayetteville's Steele, "is that, when all is resolved, each resident of the total community shares, and shares equitably, the costs of providing services in the county." Once mediation has formally begun, the law allows 60 days for a solution to be reached. Whether that's the end of the matter is anybody's guess. According to the law, the mediation is not binding. If any of the parties disagrees with the results, more court action may result.
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