Tallapoosa Journal - LOST division plan expected Aug 9

Carroll County Commission Chairman Bill Chappell promised Thursday to have a formula for dividing local options sales tax (LOST) funds ready for the Aug. 9 meeting of municipalities.

“I had hoped to be further along than this but other considerations have slowed me up,” Chappell said at Thursday’s meeting, the second LOST meeting held. “I will have a proposal for you when we meet again in two weeks. We have until the end of August to wrap this up.”

The 1-cent LOST was approved by Carroll County voters in 1977 as a means to roll back property taxes. Every 10 years, the county and cities must meet to decide how the money will be split up among them, using new census data.

One proposal Chappell will be considering was offered Thursday by Bremen City Attorney Sam Price. Price called his plan “a radical idea,” but said it would let Carroll County have all the LOST revenue and then roll back the property taxes by that amount for all county taxpayers. According to Price’s estimation, it would eliminate most of the property tax.

“Based on a $49,147,835 county budget, with a percentage of 40 percent ($20 million) provided through real estate property taxes, this would result in a Carroll County property tax of 0 to 2 mills, which would be a reduction of approximately 6.5 mills to all property taxpayers in the county,” Price said.

Bremen is involved in the discussions because a part of that city is in Carroll County.

Price said cities would have to increase their property taxes by 1 or 2 mills to make up the lost revenue. However, he said the county would enter into service delivery agreements with each city to prevent the cities from being taxed for county services they don’t use. These would include such things as sheriff’s patrol, fire department, codes enforcement, planning and zoning and recreation.

“It’s an interesting concept,” Chappell said. “I’m going to take a look at it. I want all of you (cities) to look at if all your LOST revenue goes away, how much are you going to have to raise city taxes?

John Price, Roopville mayor pro tem, said such a system wouldn’t work with his city.

“We don’t tax our citizens,” Price said. “We take all our LOST revenue and invest it in the community. We would have to increase rates (for city services) to keep going.”

Roopville had a 2010 population of 218, up from 177 in 2000. Its share of the $15.2 million 2010 LOST revenues was $18,209.91.

Before the discussion started at Thursday’s meeting, Chappell noted that some cities had already submitted their suggestions by letter.

Bowdon Mayor Keith Crawford, in a letter dated July 26, asked that the rate paid to Bowdon remain at 3.2 percent, the same as in the past.

Mt. Zion Mayor Randy Sims, in a July 18 letter, suggested basing the rate on each municipality’s percentage of the total population of the municipalities in the county, rather than on the total county population.

Villa Rica Mayor J. Collins said his city would like to get a larger percentage.

“We’ve had some preliminary discussions with our council,” Collins said. “We want to approach this and be opened minded. Understand, we want to get a larger percentage than we’re getting now, but we don’t want to rock the boat too much. We do feel like we’re a large contributor to the economic success of the county and we’d like to be rewarded accordingly.”

Under a clause known as the “Absent Municipality Provision,” only Carroll County and the city of Carrollton would be required to sign the LOST agreement. The provision defines “absent municipalities” as “those having a combined total population less than one-half of the aggregate population of all qualified municipalities in the county.”

But the law does require that the absent municipalities receive a per capita share of the proceeds that are designated for distribution to qualified municipalities.

The total municipality population in Carroll County is 41,570. Carrollton has 24,388, or 58.7 percent of it. The next highest population is Villa Rica, with 8,367, which is only 20.1 percent of the municipality population, making it one of the absent municipalities.

Representatives from Carroll County, Bowdon, Bremen, Carrollton, Mt. Zion, Roopville, Temple, Villa Rica and Whitesburg attended the Thursday meeting.

LOST differs from SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) which is a penny sales tax that funds specific projects and is approved by voters in a countywide referendum.

Carroll County residents now pay 7 cents sales tax per dollar. Four cents goes to the state, with 1-cent each to the SPLOST, the education E-SPLOST and LOST. If the 1-cent transportation (T-SPLOST) is approved by the Three Rivers region voters on July 31, Carroll County residents will pay an 8-cent sales tax. The Three Rivers region includes the counties of Carroll, Butts, Coweta, Heard, Lamar, Meriwether, Pike, Spalding, Troup and Upson.

Comments

(6)

RhettMillsaps

July 27, 2012

I am happy to see the support for Bill Chappell begin to hit these articles. Bill has done a better job than most people in the position he is in. He reminds me of Horrie Duncan, who ruled over the money until he was so old, he did not run for reelection and when the following person came in and mismanaged the funds, Duncan was called to return and did until his death. This county can be run by one man, it was for many years and it worked when Duncan was in office. I don't see anything wrong with the chairman being a CEO, that is what the charter calls for and there are few people in the county disagree with it. So, if you want to continue to have the best leadership in Carroll County, return Bill Chappell to his position, I just don't understand when you have someone doing the job, a few who disagree with him raise this big stink and expect the voters to go for it, when they know he has kelp his word, regardless of the fact he was given money to work with, what is so wrong about that. He has not blown it, like others in his position have in the past, that is reason enough to reelect him, Go Bill, I know you will do what you say for 4 more years and then we will have to worry about who best to serve, be sure and leave us with a trained individual who we can support, I believe Jack Bell did a great job and I know we have an able man in his old position now who understands how things work, so next 4 years we will see who comes out to run, I just think Bill will serve one more term, he is not as young as you think, but we all thank you for serving the citizens of this county, all of us who do. I am sure there are more of us than them, so God bless us with sound management again...Vote for Bill Chappell, and for Tommy Lee to replace Hendrix, who has failed the people in every area of the job, Lee knows how all of this works and will be a great commissioner, God bless him in his race, I believe he will succeed in his quest to take the commission seat from a one term commissioner who has done nothing but gain from her position and not really touch the lives of her people in her district. Sure, it is one thing to say I am the commissioner of Dist. 3, it is another to know what to do in that position, and it is clear a change there is needed badly, Thank you Tommy for running, the county will be so blessed to have you serve. Look forward to a positive winning night next Tues for you both...

flowergirl1969

Get Er Done. That is exactly what Mr Chappel has done. Thanks for the compliment on his behalf.Consider your vote cancelled out. I vote for a proven record. Not a felon or onyone else.

I will however, give you the compliment of being man enough to give it as well as take it. And not whine and cry to the T/G about a free speech issue in their paper. Many start crying and whining about someone elses posts and then the T/G takes it down..... WRONG!!! any way you look at it. We live in this country. Under the cover of our constitution. And therefore freedom of speech is a right. Whether you agree or dis agree.. You be able to state your own opinions here. As long as you are not cussing or using words that will cause women , children or anyone else to be offended by them.

4wheeldrive. as Ron White would say. " if you don't know what GED stands for. You probally have one. Are from some other town? How did you spell that town west of carrollton? Yea the one next to the Alabama state line? Your slanderous attempts to hurt Mr Bill are falling on deaf ears. Just shut up and vote. We will see you back here after the election. CHAPP IN A LANDSLIDE. Then maybe you will shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4wheeldrive

Flowerchild, I think GED stands for GET ER DONE...For falling on deaf ears, your hearing aid is working well today. AND yes I'll stand corrected on my spelling error thanks for reading my post what she is referring to folk is how I did miss spell ''BOWDON'' sorry. '' Are from some other town'' that's funny. I have already voted and to your delight Mr. Chappell was not my over all pick for the day. After the election is over we will see if Mr. Chappell has his old job back at his toilet paper company, If not then he alone will continue to run this County in a DICTATOR Ship fashion. I wish I could have gotten into the game earlier about the Bowden ''lol'' Land project to see if this deal was made for another opponent to get in the race to absorb any votes from Hollingsworth from the folks who oppose Chappells ways. If he does win dear I will be glad to sit back and continue to watch his magic in play.

Mr. Chappell are you scared now. The money that you paid to purchase the land for Bowden, What was the price you paid?? hum...lets see...oh yeah $200,000.00 is now gonna bite you in the rump because this City will more or less get to double dip on its LOST tax revenue and maybe a little more, What other city has benefited from this...Oh I know, The City of Carrollton yeah the Industrial park out on the BY-PASS man that a swell leader ship Mr. Chappell you show. Why can't that 2 mill tax increase be dropped, you know the one that took place before you took office, and generated all those millions of dollars that you are taking credit for, all that money just keeps piling up from the poor ole tax payers. Whats funny about the whole thing is that you can't see the effect it has. I think and I hope people will see what I'me saying here. And like I believed when I first heard a bout the Bowden land purchase...It would come back and haunt some folks and now I think the pie has landed in the right faces....Great Job Bill.

Z93

Chappell without a run-off.