An open letter to County Commission Chairman Jack Smith: Commissioner Smith, you may recall my support for you during your campaign last year in this forum. Being a proponent of getting our runaway taxes under control, you earned my vote and that of many of my fellow Fayette County citizens.

I specifically remember reading your campaign letter where you described the unfair tax burden that has been placed upon the citizens of this county as a result of the recent real estate boom. As you are well aware, our property tax increases have well outpaced inflation.

You mentioned some provisions in place in many communities around the nation that have brought relief by aligning property tax increases more closely with inflation rather than tying them to rapidly rising property values.

After all, many citizens will not capitalize on this appreciation because they have no desire to sell their homes. Many have taken significant pay cuts, have been laid off or are on fixed incomes and must deal with these ridiculous tax increases from a very limited personal budget.

Mr. Commissioner, you stated that it was your desire to implement these tax relief provisions here in Fayette County should you be elected. It’s now time for the rubber to meet the road as many of us received our assessments in the mail this past week.

I found it interesting that my home appreciated 2.9 percent in a market (Atlanta) that has depreciated 2.0 percent since the fourth quarter of 2005 with an inventory increase of 26 percent as of Feb. 26, 2007 (U.S. News & World Report, April 2, 2007).

Still, like you, I believe that our tax increases should be tied to inflation which represents the best yardstick from which to estimate the year-over-year cost increases associated with running our public services.

Looking back two years, and I will use my personal tax situation in assuming that my fellow citizens have been equally overburdened, my property taxes increased 6.33 percent in 2004 and 9.71 percent in 2005 with inflation running at 3.4 percent and 3.2 percent respectfully.

Applying these increases to a pre-2004 baseline, inflation for the two years when combined algorithmically totals 6.71 percent where my taxes increased algorithmically 16.65 percent over the same period.

Thus, the tax burden for myself and many of my fellow citizens increased at a rate more than double the CPI, which I hope you’ll agree is nothing short of preposterous.

Based on these calculations, we are therefore due a property tax rollback of 9.94 percent going into this tax year.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, inflation for this year is currently running (annualized) at 2.4 percent, which would give us a net rollback of 7.54 percent off of current rates to bring our taxes in line with inflation over this period.

It is my sincere hope that you will consider these figures in calculating our new millage rates this year.

Congratulations on your being elected to your highly esteemed position. I believe that I speak for all in saying that I have faith that you will finally bring tax relief and fairness to the citizens of Fayette County.

As a side note for Peachtree City Mayor Logsdon: Don’t even think about yet another PTC millage rate increase.

Ralph P. Trapaga

Peachtree City, Ga.