Wednesday, December 25, 2002
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Wednesday, December 25, 2002 |
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Tyrone upset over its LOST piece of pie By MICHAEL BOYLAN
In the council comment portion of Thursday night's Tyrone Town Council meeting, Councilman Paul Letourneau stated his unhappiness with the new Local Option Sales Tax distribution agreement for Fayette County. "Not everybody is happy with the LOST agreement," Letourneau said. "Tyrone will lose really big and we'll be hard pressed to make it up." Letourneau stated that because of the LOST agreement, the town of Tyrone will lose $1.5 million over the next 10 years compared to the current formula, citing figures from a memo from Town Manager Barry Amos and Assistant Town Manager Valerie Fowler. "Peachtree City and Fayette County changed the LOST formula without consulting the other municipalities involved," Letourneau said. "They claim we will all share the wealth but it doesn't appear so." Tyrone's projected LOST take for 2003 under the new agreement will decrease by approximately $94,000, and in 2004 it will decrease by $114,754, eventually causing a projected loss of $189,848 by the year 2012. LOST revenues are split up between the county and its municipalities. Currently, the county gets 47.5 percent of LOST collections while the municipalities split the remaining 52.5 percent based on population figures. That will remain intact for 2003, but the following year, the county's take will increase to 48.5 percent in 2004 and to 50 percent in 2005 and for the remaining seven years on the deal. The LOST agreement was negotiated between Peachtree City and Fayette County since the other municipalities Tyrone, Fayetteville and Brooks were not required to approve the deal. County officials demanded the increase because it said it would be handling the lion's share of Fayette's projected population growth in the coming years.
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