In the council comment portion

of Thursday night's Tyrone Town Council meeting, Councilman Paul Letourneau

stated his unhappiness with the new Local Option Sales Tax distribution

agreement for Fayette County.

"Not everybody is happy

with the LOST agreement," Letourneau said. "Tyrone will lose

really big and we'll be hard pressed to make it up."

Letourneau stated that because

of the LOST agreement, the town of Tyrone will lose $1.5 million over

the next 10 years compared to the current formula, citing figures from

a memo from Town Manager Barry Amos and Assistant Town Manager Valerie

Fowler.

"Peachtree City and Fayette

County changed the LOST formula without consulting the other municipalities

involved," Letourneau said. "They claim we will all share the

wealth but it doesn't appear so."

Tyrone's projected LOST take

for 2003 under the new agreement will decrease by approximately $94,000,

and in 2004 it will decrease by $114,754, eventually causing a projected

loss of $189,848 by the year 2012.

LOST revenues are split up

between the county and its municipalities. Currently, the county gets

47.5 percent of LOST collections while the municipalities split the remaining

52.5 percent based on population figures.

That will remain intact for

2003, but the following year, the county's take will increase to 48.5

percent in 2004 and to 50 percent in 2005 and for the remaining seven

years on the deal.

The LOST agreement was negotiated

between Peachtree City and Fayette County since the other municipalities

Tyrone, Fayetteville and Brooks were not required to approve the deal.

County officials demanded the

increase because it said it would be handling the lion's share of Fayette's

projected population growth in the coming years.

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