Consulting

firm Governmental Solutions Inc. soon will begin

working to separate the sheep from the goats when

it comes to governmental services in Fayette

County, if county commissioners agree.

County

and city leaders Thursday agreed to hire the

company to settle a dispute revolving around the

question: Do city residents pay more in taxes

than they are receiving in county services, or is

it residents of unincorporated areas who are

subsidizing services that city dwellers receive?

Members

of the county's FUTURE Committee (Fayette United

Team to Use Resources Effectively) have been

pondering the question ever since officials in

Tyrone and Peachtree City suggested early in 1999

that their residents don't receive enough county

services to account for the taxes they pay.

Tyrone

Town Councilman Ronnie Cannon spoke out after the

county declined to help fund a recreation project

in the town, saying residents are short-changed

about $400,000 a year. Peachtree City officials

later released figures suggesting their residents

pay about $2 million more in taxes than they

receive in services.

County

officials have answered that they believe

residents of unincorporated Fayette actually

subsidize the services city residents receive.

It's

an old argument. Georgia cities have argued for

decades that their residents are "double

taxed," paying taxes both to the county and

to the city for services that are duplicated by

both governments.

Radical

officials have suggested consolidation of

governments to solve the problem, while others

have opted for a more conservative approach,

looking for areas where county and city

governments can combine services or reach

cooperative agreements to reduce overall taxes.

Fayette's

FUTURE Committee had begun work on that problem

several months before the state General Assembly

in 1998 approved House Bill 489, which requires

that local governments come up with cooperative

agreements to end duplication of services.

The

FUTURE Committee last week agreed to hire

Government Solutions to study finances and

services in the local governments and settle the

dispute once and for all.

Fayette

County's share of the $19,500 cost of the study

will be more than $9,000, and expenditures larger

than $5,000 must be approved by vote of the

County Commission. Once that vote is taken,

possibly during the group's Jan. 13 meeting, the

work can proceed.

<!--

-----------