Dalton, Whitfield County set to start tax talks

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February 13, 2012

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Mon Feb 13, 2012, 07:22 AM EST

Whitfield County’s Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) brings in about $17 million a year, and the county government keeps more than 80 percent of it. But Dalton officials say the city deserves a much bigger share of the tax, and they should get their chance to press their case soon.

Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb said the board will likely send a letter to officials in each of the county’s four cities to open new LOST negotiations by April 1. The agreement dividing those revenues must be renegotiated every 10 years after a new census is completed. That letter sets the clock running on those negotiations.

“From the time we send them the letter, we have 60 days to meet and talk and negotiate. If we don’t reach an agreement in 60 days, we go into non-binding arbitration for 60 days,” Babb said.

In the past, if the county and officials in at least three cities could not reach an agreement the LOST would expire, which gave them an incentive to reach an agreement. But the Georgia General Assembly changed the law last year. Now, if they can’t reach an agreement after arbitration the dispute will go to a state judge outside Whitfield County.

Whitfield County Attorney Robert Smalley says the judge must accept either the county’s proposal or the cities’ — he can’t craft his own split of the revenue.

“It’s like baseball arbitration,” he said.

While the discussions will involve all four cities, Babb says the most important and difficult talks are likely to be with Dalton.

“A place like Gwinnett County really has an issue because they have about 15 different cities and they are all pretty good sized. But Dalton’s population so overwhelms the size of our other three cities that Dalton is always the major player in this. But everybody will have a seat at the table,” Babb said.

Dalton Mayor David Pennington says the City Council hasn’t decided how large of a share they will ask for but it will definitely be much larger than the 14 percent of the LOST the city currently gets.

“The minimum will be our share of the county’s population (roughly 32 percent),” Pennington said. “Once we understand how Rome and Floyd County arrived at their split, we’ll probably be seeking closer to what Rome’s split is. They get 41 percent, and they are the same size relative to Floyd as we are to Whitfield County.”

Whitfield County currently keeps about 84 percent of the LOST, and Cohutta, Tunnel Hill and Varnell split the remaining 2 percent.

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Dalton, Whitfield County set to start tax talks

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