When a Peachtree City

police officer gives a traffic ticket in Peachtree City,

the resulting fine goes to Peachtree City, not to the

county.

If the unincorporated area

residents could keep all the fines generated by the

sheriff's department, without sharing them with the city

residents, then the cities might have a point. (For the

record, Peachtree City's budget for 2000 shows it earns

$1 million a year from fines and receives a federal grant

of $200,000 for its police, to help offset a police

department cost of $2.15 million.)

It's been my experience

that the clueless hire a lot of consultants, especially

with "hot potato" issues where they seek to

avoid hard decisions and being exposed to criticism. It

is worrisome to read in The Citizen articles which

suggest our elected officials, and even their consultant,

are blind to issues like the sales tax subsidy given the

cities (over $7 million a year) and the cities' revenues

from their police department.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayette County

[email protected]