Fayette County

and its cities once again have scheduled their day in court to settle

their long-standing tax equity dispute.

Following a

pretrial conference last week, senior Judge Stephen E. Boswell of Jonesboro

set a hearing for Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. in Fayette Superior Court. Boswell

was assigned to the case recently after Fayette Judge Ben Miller recused

himself.

County attorneys

will argue for dismissal of a request for mandatory mediation from Peachtree

City, Fayetteville and Tyrone. If their motion to dismiss is denied, Boswell

will appoint a mediator to seek an arbitration of the dispute.

Leaders in

the three cities involved Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone claim

that their residents are paying more in taxes to Fayette County than they

receive in services. County leaders say if anything, the opposite is true.

Under recent

state law, counties and cities are required to develop joint strategies

for delivery of service to avoid double taxation and reduce the cost of

government, and the statute also provides for mandatory mediation when

counties and cities can't agree.

But county

leaders argue that Fayette and its cities already approved a joint service

delivery strategy almost two years ago, and mediation of the tax dispute

should come only after that agreement expires.

That will be

in a matter of months. "Why do it twice?" said County Attorney

Bill McNally.

Talks aimed

at ironing out the dispute broke down late last year, and cities filed

the request for mandatory mediation prescribed in the law.

But Fayette's

attorneys filed the motion to dismiss that request, pointing out that

the county and cities have filed a joint service delivery strategy that

has been approved by the state, and that agreement expires in a little

over a year. The tax equity dispute should be taken up as part of hammering

out a new strategy once the old one expires, they argue.