Tax equity will be on the minds

of Fayette county and city officials as they gather next week in their

FUTURE Committee meeting.

FUTURE (Fayette United Team

to Use Resources Efficiently) was formed three years ago to look for ways

county and cities could cooperate to reduce costs and improve services

to citizens.

The group has hammered out

several agreements that participants say have improved efficiency and

reduced costs.

But on tax equity, cooperation

has been an elusive goal thus far.

City leaders say their residents

are taxed for services they aren't receiving and the county should either

increase services within the cities or reduce taxes within the cities.

County leaders say if anything the opposite is true.

Commissioners recently approved

a resolution stating their "final answer" is that there is no

tax inequity. Although Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox and a consultant

hired jointly by the county and cities have produced analyses that showed

inequity, those analyses didn't take into account how sales taxes are

distributed, said commission Chairman Harold Bost.

"The city taxpayers are

getting a heck of a lot of credit from sales tax," he said.

The owner of a $200,000 home

in unincorporated Fayette receives a $178 credit on property taxes due

to the local option sales tax, Bost said, adding that city residents get

that plus an additional credit:

In Peachtree City, $440;

In Tyrone, $540;

In Fayetteville, $398;

In Brooks, $620.

Peachtree City Mayor Lenox

said last week he was "appalled" at the county's final answer,

and wondered why county leaders won't at least sit down with city leaders

and talk about the impasse.

Lenox pointed out that city

residents also pay higher taxes to the county than residents of unincorporated

areas do. "I find it unfathomable that a resident in the county pays

less in taxes than a resident of the city, when we get little or nothing

out of the county in the way of recreation, public safety, public works..."

he said.

FUTURE will meet at 8 a.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 29 in room 212 of the County Administrative Complex.