Wednesday, November 13, 2002
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002 |
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1 PTC authority deal done, another in works By JOHN
MUNFORD
One half of the ongoing dispute about Peachtree City's hotel-motel tax funds has been resolved. The City Council has unanimously approved a new intergovernmental agreement with the city's Airport Authority that changes how it receives funds from the city's hotel-motel tax revenues. That leaves council and the city's Development Authority to work out the numbers for a similar deal. While the Airport Authority depends on the hotel-motel tax funds for capital projects at Falcon Field, the Development Authority uses its share of the hotel-motel tax to operate the city's tennis center and amphitheater. Those two facilities are mostly funded with other revenues from fees, ticket sales and sponsorships. Under its current agreement, the Development Authority gets $265,000 a year in hotel-motel tax revenues, which also helps fund its economic development programs. Mayor Steve Brown and Development Authority chairman Tate Godfrey both said Monday they felt optimistic both sides were getting closer to a deal. "I think it's going probably the best I have seen it," Brown said of the negotiations, despite recent claims from authority executive director Virgil Christian that Brown wants him fired. While those comments "didn't help any," Brown said he was very optimistic a deal could be worked out. Godfrey said he felt it was critical that both sides continue to show progress in the negotiations. "I want to say emphatically that both sides are trying very hard," Godfrey said. "I'm optimistic we're going to get something done." Christian has worked on cutting the budgets "very significantly" for the tennis center and amphitheater, which the authority operates for the city, Godfrey said. Reducing the authority's hotel-motel tax revenues will also end up increasing ticket prices and other various user fees, Godfrey added. Godfrey said he is glad the council isn't pressuring them to reach an agreement by a certain date, which he felt would be necessary only if either side was trying to stall the other, which isn't the case. When the negotiations began several weeks ago, some council members intimated that the matter could be settled in court by a judge if the Development Authority didn't cooperate. The new agreement with the Airport Authority, which was approved last week by the authority at a special meeting, calls for it to receive 13.3 percent of the collected hotel-motel tax revenues. The previous deal called for a flat rate of $120,000 a year. Under its new agreement, the Airport Authority will receive roughly $120,000 this year if the city meets its projections of raising $907,000 with the hotel-motel tax. The deal will technically expire Sept. 30, 2004, but will automatically renew annually unless either party gives at least 90 days prior to the renewal date. That allows the new City Council to have control over the hotel-motel tax distribution, which was one of the main sticking points of the negotiations. Airport Authority chairman Cathy Nelmes said she was pleased with the new agreement and she appreciated council's cooperation in the negotiations.
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