The Coweta County Board of Commissioners doesn't take a 20 percent rise in costs lightly.

During Tuesday's meeting, the commissioners once again refused to pay their dues to the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center. The $41,000 bill had been presented to the board in July, but the board said they needed more information before they approved the payment.

The bill is nearly $9,000 more than last year's bill, which sent Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter off the deep end.

"They're not showing me where their budget to us is increasing that much," Hunter said.

The regional development center calculated the county's bill based on a 1994 population estimate. Hunter pointed out the county had been paying the same amount through this decade and wondered why the big increase was imposed immediately.

With the county continuing to grow, the commissioners expressed worries that next year's bill may be even larger and that the services received from the group are not increasing as the payment rises.

Commission Chairman Jim McGuffey, who is a member of Chatt.-Flint's board of directors, said he would address the county's concerns at next week's board meeting.

In the meantime, the commissioners asked the staff to obtain a detailed copy of the economic planning group's budget and brief the board on what the county was receiving for its money.

Commissioner Robert Wood also complained that the county was charged anytime they needed advice or recommendation from the group.

"Everything we've got from them has been out of their scope of services," Wood said.

McGuffey and the other commissioners also agreed that Coweta County must be paying for services for other jurisdictions since the county is the biggest government in the group.