VALDOSTA —
Georgia Attorney General Samuel Olens recently responded to a request by county commissioners to interpret Local Option Sales Tax negotiation criteria.
Olens’ verdict was simple and favored the county’s argument that service delivery responsibilities must consider the entire population of 109,233 citizens in Lowndes County; not just citizens that reside in the unincorporated areas.
“It’s what I’ve been saying for awhile now; that’s how I interpreted the law,” said Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk. “I asked the Attorney General to interpret the law since that’s part of his domain about three weeks ago just to make sure that I wasn’t wrong and that I was reading the law the way it was written.”
Valdosta Mayor John Gayle believes the Attorney General’s interpretation will have little bearing on future mediation.
“We believe that over 50 percent of the people live inside the city too and we provide services to county and city residents,” said Gayle.
“They use that one criteria and we’re using eight to come up with our figures.”
Gayle said he "likes Olens a lot, but wouldn’t consider him an expert on LOST negotiations.”
Paulk said he was glad the cities didn’t agree to his original proposal.
“I’m really glad they didn’t settle with this; I think I might have been too generous with my offer,” said Paulk. “I’m looking forward to future negotiations. This understanding by the Attorney General reinforces the county’s position greatly.”
Paulk’s original offer of a 42 percent split for all the cities and 58 percent for the county was removed after negotiations between city and county government officials reached no conclusion almost a month ago.
The cities of Remerton, Lake Park, Valdosta, Hahira and Dasher have banded together for the negotiation process and are asking for a minimum of a 46 percent of the revenue split.
The estimated $210 million LOST revenue is re-negotiated every ten years and provides local governments with additional revenue to provide property tax relief. Total LOST and property tax revenues should not exceed the property tax revenue that would have been collected if the sales tax did not exist.
The re-negotiation procedure involves 60 days of negotiation, 60 days for mediation or non-binding arbitration, and if that's not successful, the last step is Superior Court. Ten years ago, the issue had to be decided in Superior Court after months of negotiations and arbitration were unsuccessful.
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Valdosta Mayor John Gayle believes the Attorney General’s interpretation will have little bearing on future mediation.
Discussion
Att. Gen. sides with county on LOST
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