Peachtree City

is off the hook, no longer to blame for yet another delay in the mailing

of some 38,192 property tax bills.

Originally

intended for mailing on Oct. 1, with a due date of Dec. 1, the bills will

go out Oct. 15 with a due date of Dec. 15.

"It's

just a lot of little things that contributed to that," said an employee

in the tax commissioner's office. "We hope to get them in the mail

Last year,

nearly 50,000 individual bills were mailed, but only around 40,000 will

go out this year due to a change in the law regarding the value of taxable

property.

Meanwhile,

Peachtree City has met the legal requirements for hiking its tax rate

by 12.3 percent.

Citing scheduling

problems, the city postponed by a week the final two hearings on the .53

mill increase, originally scheduled Sept. 25. Moved to Thursday, the final

public forums on funding the 2004 city budget actually took place a day

after the start of the new fiscal year.

The .53 millage

rate increase imposed by the Peachtree City Council on city homeowners

will raise the taxes on an average $200,000 house by about $100 annually,

city staff asserts.

Tax Commissioner

George Wingo had hoped to get the bills into the hands of county taxpayers

avoid the end-of-year cash-ow problems it's suffered before.

Just last month,

the Fayette County Board of Education borrowed $8.5 million in a 90-day

note from Wachovia Bank, to meet operating expenses and pay salaries

Thursday's

meeting in Peachtree City was attended by a host of angry residents, many

of whom took the opportunity to chastise Mayor Steve Brown for not doin

more to cut spending.

The council

voted 3-1 to adopt the budget, with Dan Tennant casting the dissenting

vote.