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EMS tax dispute may be headed to court

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City and Fayette County may be headed back to court to settle a familiar issue: Tax equity.

Mayor Steve Brown said the city may have no choice but to consider legal action against the county, after a majority of the County Commission voted Thursday night to reject the city’s most recent request to establish a special EMS tax district.

Because the city operates its own EMS, Brown and the rest of the City Council argue that taxpayers should be exempt from paying to support the county EMS, which serves all of unincorporated Fayette County outside Peachtree City, as well as Fayetteville and Tyrone.

But County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn and others say that Peachtree City voluntarily chose to establish its own EMS.

The city and county have long had an agreement to provide mutual aid when it is requested, said Dunn.

“Sometimes when you have to have two units out on a scene, it’s essential,” he said. “But they do come out and they’ve never turned us down when we’ve asked them for assistance.”

A consultant’s report from last year suggested consolidation would solve the “double taxation” problem and benefit the entire county in the long run.

Peachtree City refuses to even consider the notion.

“Peachtree City loses in every option proposed except creating a tax district,” said Brown. ”Not one commissioner disagrees that the city is being unfairly taxed for services we don’t receive.”

Thursday night, the county’s legal staff asked commissioners to approve moving on to the next step in the establishment of the tax district ÐÊgetting input from the other municipalities in the county.

Commissioners Linda Wells, Peter Pfeifer and Herb Frady were all outraged.

Pfeifer, the only one of the commissioners who lives in Peachtree City, said he doubted the accuracy of the city’s facts on the matter.

“We have the opinions of the Peachtree City Council,” Pfeifer said. “I do not like something as important as Emergency Medical Services and my taxes to be determined by their opinions.”

Frady, a former mayor of Peachtree City, said he didn’t understand the city’s motivation. When Peachtree City first got an ambulance years ago, it served the entire western half of the county with no problems, he said.

“We all got along a lot better at one time, but we haven’t acted that way too much lately,” Frady said.

But the sharpest criticism of the city’s position came from Wells, who declared that Peachtree City may be the “crown jewel” but that Fayette County is, in fact, the “crown.”

“Peachtree City couldn’t exist in another county, and it wouldn’t exist without Fayette County,” she said.

Then, addressing Brown, she added, “You might as well take your marbles and go home, or go ahead and secede from the county. If we get sued, we get sued. I’m not going to support this.”

Dunn tried to steer the discussion back toward a more reasonable tone, admitting that there were more issues than just the double taxation to be concerned about.

“Nobody up here wants the people of Peachtree City to be double taxed, but I don’t think this is the way to go about rectifying that,” Dunn said.

Frady said he would support a merger of the fire and EMS departments countywide, but Brown indicated later that wasn’t going to happen.

The bottom line, Brown said, is that the county and city already have a special tax district arrangement for fire coverage.

“If they have a problem with the EMS district, why are they doing a fire district?” Brown asked. “It doesn’t make any sense, it’s just illogical.”