The unincorporated area homeowner

will simply see the $240 from the county, because that's all he gets.

(Actually, both of them might be short 25 percent of that, for the portion

that goes to businesses, most of which pay little sales tax to start with.

That's a separate scam.)

Is it any wonder, then, that

the city folks think "visitors" are paying a lot of our local

sales tax? It is, in fact, their neighbors in the unincorporated part

of the county who provide their windfall. That might explain why the most

active proponents of the SPLOST vote in September 1999 were city residents.

Not realizing that they have

been the beneficiaries of what can most charitably be described as a legislative

scam, our city residents think the local sales tax goose really lays golden

eggs and ought to continue doing it. Not realizing that they have been

the victims of the same legislative scam, our county residents seem largely

apathetic and ready to be fleeced for another 10 years. That's the duration

of the next tax-splitting "deal" our county commissioners are

now hammering out with the cities, in virtual secrecy.

It's taken me years to discover

why a sane person would think aliens from the planet Mars would come visit

us here in Fayette County and help pay our local sales tax. Those Martians,

it turns out, are our own neighbors in the unincorporated area of the

county.

Now that we all know who the

Martians are, it might not be a bad idea to drive a stake in the heart

of our local option sales tax. It may take courage to do it, but our political

leaders should realize that the scam has been exposed. We've all been

unwitting victims, but that's no reason to continue this shameful scam

for another 10 years. Those city residents with "pride of integrity"

should join in the chorus to reform the system drastically or abolish

the local option sales tax altogether.

Why look with scorn at the

Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, when we can find this one in our

own backyard? Like charity, reform begins at home.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayette County

[email protected]

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