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SPLOST figures still being negotiated

PTC Council puts off discussion at Thursday meeting

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

More negotiating is taking place on the proposed distribution figures for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for roads that will appear on November’s ballot.

The Peachtree City Council was set to discuss the matter Thursday night but tabled it due to the ongoing negotiations, according to Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford.

The county is in the driver’s seat with the distribution figures, which will determine how much of the $131.3 million SPLOST will go to the county and to each incorporated city in the county.

Earlier in July, the county offered to increase the “split” to 65 percent for the county and 35 percent that would be split between the county and its municipalities based on population figures. The city alone would take roughly $16 million under that proposal with the county getting $107.5 million.

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown was irked by the county’s approach to the SPLOST since the county commission voted for it just weeks before a new state law took affect that’s designed to give cities more leverage in SPLOST distribution negotiations. Brown in turn rubbed County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn the wrong way, inviting a news reporter to a meeting between Brown, Dunn and several county employees regarding the SPLOST distribution.

Dunn refused to meet with Brown due to the reporter’s presence; Dunn has since denounced Brown’s tactic as underhanded.

The city council has seemed to have a different take from Brown, with councilman Steve Rapson indicating several weeks ago that the county’s offer and Peachtree City’s offer aren’t that far apart in the grand scheme of the SPLOST. Rutherford has said the SPLOST would fund Peachtree City projects with money that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

Rutherford has also said she wants to work on other tax inequity issues with the county in which city residents pay county taxes for services that are provided instead by the city.