Friday, February 21, 2003
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Friday, February 21, 2003 |
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Draft of recreation, entertainment authority legislation hits snag By JOHN MUNFORD A kink has arisen in plans to create a special recreation and entertainment authority to run Peachtree City's tennis center and amphitheater. Special legislation must be passed in the Georgia General Assembly to create the new authority. The city has already submitted a proposed draft of the legislation for review by state officials. That review, however, turned up a problem with a part of the proposed legislation regarding the authority being allowed to use hotel-motel tax funds. "I have been able to find no provision in the hotel-motel tax law which would authorize such receipt (of hotel-motel tax funds) by the authority, so it would not be appropriate since such a receipt is illegal," wrote Doug Carlyle, special deputy legislative counsel. Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown, who has pushed for the new authority to take over the tennis center and amphitheater operations from the city's development authority, said he wasn't too worried about the problem. The solution could be to create a third entity to accept the funds from the city and pass them through to the new recreation and entertainment authority. "Our people are figuring out how we can proceed with that," Brown said. "I think it can be worked out." Brown said he felt the issue, which began on a rather contentious tone between the Development Authority and the City Council, is close to being settled. As the process developed, authority representatives agreed it was in the city's best interest for another entity to run the tennis center and amphitheater. The Development Authority has prepared a transition plan to help make sure the process of the new authority taking the facilities over goes smoothly. "We'll look back on this in six months and say, 'What were we bickering about?'" Brown said. The City Council was slated to meet and discuss the legislation Wednesday night, but the meeting was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, according to city officials.
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