Dalton City Council members said Monday that city taxpayers should not subsidize services outside the city. Services in unincorporated parts of Whitfield County should be paid by the taxpayers in those areas, they added.
The council voted 4-0 to approve a resolution outlining which services it will provide to city residents and which services the county will provide to city residents. The council also called on the county government not to use taxes raised in the city to fund any services it doesn’t provide city residents.
The resolution states the council’s position in upcoming service-delivery agreement talks with the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners. State law requires local governments to have a service-delivery agreement with the county, which is renegotiated every 10 years.
“This resolution identifies which services we expect to be delivered by the county to city residents and what services we will provide,” Mayor David Pennington said. “Those services that are provided to the unincorporated county should be paid by the unincorporated county and not by the city of Dalton.”
In short, the resolution states the city will provide law enforcement, firefighting and fire prevention, recreation, stormwater control and public works and calls on commissioners to create special service districts outside the city to fund those services to county residents.
The resolution calls on the county to provide superior, magistrate, probate and juvenile court; district attorney, indigent defense, corrections, coroner, building inspection, building permits, building code enforcement, public health, family and children’s services, emergency medical services, elections, emergency management, tax assessment, public transportation and animal control, among others.
And the resolution calls on the county to create special service districts outside the city to fund its share of joint services such as the trade center, the senior center and the library. City officials have long complained that taxes raised in the city help fund the county’s share of those services, in effect causing city residents to pay twice.
“I don’t think we are being unreasonable,” council member George Sadosuk said.
Council members said a recent court case in Gwinnett County bolsters the city’s position.
Fifteen cities sued the county to end double taxation and to collect back taxes for county services that those cities also provide. Last year, a Superior Court judge found in the cities’ favor and ruled their residents don’t have to pay taxes to fund services that primarily benefit residents of unincorporated Gwinnett County. Gwinnett officials at first filed an appeal, but two weeks ago, they agreed to settle the suit and pay the cities $32 million. They also agreed to create four special tax districts to fund services such as fire protection and police services outside those cities that provide those services.
Some Board of Commissioners members said last week they would have to see the city’s proposal before they could discuss it and reach a position on it.
But board Chairman Mike Babb said that, in light of what happened in Gwinnett County, board members have already discussed separating county fire protection from the rest of the general budget.
The fire department has a budget of about $4 million. Babb said half of that could be paid with “the insurance premium tax refund” it gets from the state.
“And we set up a special millage rate to cover the rest. We obviously wouldn’t charge the city of Dalton that millage rate, and we probably wouldn’t charge the city of Cohutta because they have their own fire department,” he said last week.
Local News
February 21, 2012
City curbs county services
- Local News
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Chemical release at MFG Chemical
Callahan Road is closed to the public at Abutment Monday morning following a chemical explosion at MFG Chemical Monday morning. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)
A “chemical explosion” at MFG Chemical on Callahan Road in Dalton this morning has resulted in “no reports of serious injuries at this time,” but 24 employees from a nearby Beaulieu building have been are being decontaminated near the site, according to Dalton Police Department Spokesman Bruce Frazier.
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