Brown happy sales tax bill is passed

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown was elated to hear the news on Thursday morning that legislation promoting funding equity for Special Purpose Local Option Sale Tax (SPLOST) had passed both chambers of the General Assembly on the last day of the 2004 session. Mayor Brown stated, “This is the most significant piece of legislation affecting cities in the past decade, and it goes a long way in promoting fairness in government.”

The legislation started off as House Bill 1714, and the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Rules Committee and the entire chamber passed it. However, the bill stalled in the Senate Rules Committee and failed to meet the deadline to reach the Senate floor for a vote.

After learning that the legislation had stalled, mayors from all over the state began flooding both the House and Senate with faxes and phone calls demanding a resolution to the one-sided SPLOST problem, which currently gives County Governments complete discretion in the allocation of SPLOST funds.

Brown openly stated in his faxes, “What a great disappointment it was to hear that the Republican controlled Senate Rules Committee did not move HB 1714 to the Senate floor for a vote. For the past three months, I had my fellow Republicans telling me that it was the Democrats in the House Rules Committee that would slay HB 1714.”

Brown noted, “I just got sick and tired of my city residents not being able to get their fair share of the taxes and it was time to fight.” A mad scramble ensued on the last day of the session and the language from the failed HB 1714 was added to HB 709. At approximately 11:45 PM on Wednesday, April 8, HB 709 passed and is now awaiting Governor Perdue’s signature.

Brown has continuously raised objections to the proposed SPLOST funding distribution from Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn. According to HB 709, Peachtree City would be entitled to 35.6 percent of the SPLOST revenue. At the March 3 Special Called Meeting of the Fayette County Commission, Brown introduced an “olive branch” funding proposal on behalf of the City Council that asked for only 22.5 percent of the SPLOST revenue. The proposal was unilaterally rejected by Dunn.

Brown concluded, “Our homeowners, industrial residents and commercial residents are counting on their City Council to take a stand on this fairness in funding issue, since their elected County Commissioners have failed to address Peachtree City’s concerns. Everyone agrees that our city will generate a significant portion of the proposed tax and we, in accordance with HB 709, are only asking for a fair share.”