Peachtree

City residents are not getting out of the county

budget what they put into it - at least

that's the way some city officials see it.

The

topic came up at last week's city budget hearing,

where Mayor Bob Lenox said that a gap of about

$2.5 million per year exists between what city

residents pay in county taxes and the services

they receive.

Lenox's

comments are similar to Tyrone Councilman Ronnie

Cannon's remarks last month. Cannon complained

that Tyrone's residents also are receiving less

than their share of county services.

"That's

equal to a fire station with all the equipment

each year," he said. "That's a

community center a year."

The

matter came out of a discussion of establishing a

city policy for handling requests from nonprofit

organization that seek funding.

Councilman

Jim Pace said he believes countywide

organizations should get their funding at the

county level.

One

example cited in the discussion was Beautiful

Fayette, which was reportedly requesting $25,000

from Fayette County and $16,000 or so from the

city. That amounts to city residents paying

twice, according to some city officials.

Lenox

said that the unequal return in county services

flies directly in the face of House Bill 489,

which he stated requires the appropriate amount

of services rendered for revenue received.

Lenox

told The Citizen in an interview this week that

these comments were the result of a great deal of

study and research into city and county budget

and tax figures.

This

particular issue was not covered in recent HB 489

discussions, and he hopes to bring it up again

sometime in the future.

"We

worked through the HB 489 stuff to meet the

[state-imposed] deadline," he said.

"But we put off most of the harder

decisions."

But

he added that HB 489 is essentially a continuous

process, and the city is continuing to study the

issue and hopefully find a way to cut into the

budget gap.

The

two main goals of HB 489, as the mayor sees it,

are "to foster overall economy, and make

sure whoever pays for services gets those

services."

At

first glance, it could appear that the issue of

taxes and services is a simple one of dollars and

cents.

"There

are essentially two sides," said Lenox.

"Revenue and expense."

But

while the revenue the county receives from

Peachtree City residents is fairly cut and dried,

how much is gotten back in the form of county

services can be a bit more of a gray area, with

room for discussion and even some haggling over

figures, Lenox admits.

"There

are obviously some judgment calls, and that's the

area where we've got to talk about it," he

said.

Lenox

said that in his analysis of these figures, he

has tried to give the county the benefit of the

doubt in every instance, so that if there is an

error, he believes it would be in the county's

favor.

But,

even if his $2.5 million figure were off by as

much as $1 million in the other direction,

"that's a lot of money," he said.

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