Peachtree City

Mayor Steve Brown wants State Rep. Kathy Cox to reconsider her position

of sponsoring enabling legislation only with a unanimous vote from council.

Brown's beef

specifically relates to a council action to create a Community Improvement

District for the Ga. Highway 54 West area . That would allow business

owners in the area to "vote" on whether to assess special taxes

among those businesses to fund projects for the area. For the tax to take

effect, a majority vote would be required both in number and in land value.

Council voted

4-1 to create the district at its Feb. 7 meeting, but Cox has declined

to sponsor the enabling legislation that would be required for it in this

session of the General Assembly. Councilwoman Annie McMenamin was the

lone vote against the idea, saying she didn't think the concept would

work in Peachtree City and that the businesses could get together to fund

special amenities.

Brown proposed

using the funds from the tax district to implement projects designated

in the Liveable Centers Initiative study that a volunteer group of citizens

and developers conducted.

The LCI plan

identified projects such as burying overhead power lines, using decorative

street lighting and mast arms for traffic signals and other aesthetic

improvements for the area.

The concept

was to improve "a burgeoning new commercial district and promote

aesthetics, character and quality while reducing the cost to the citizenry,"

Brown wrote in the letter.

Cox said Tuesday

afternoon that she is drafting a reply letter to Brown but she declined

further comment.

Brown said

Cox's position supplants the concept of "majority rule."

"All of

us, including you, were not elected by a unanimous vote," Brown said.

"Your discriminatory actions are nothing short of a mechanism that

enables a minority faction to maintain control of our government even

though a vast majority of the voters made a conscious decision while in

the voting booth to move in the opposite direction."

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