Sales tax skirmish continues between Rome, Floyd County
Sales tax distribution between the government municipalities in Floyd County remains a hot button issue after officials failed to come to an agreement during a joint local option sales tax committee meeting on Tuesday.
The committee is made up of County Manager Jamie Mccord, City Manager Sammy Rich, County Commissioner Allison Watters, City Commissioner Mark Cochran and the two finance directors, as well as Cave Spring Mayor Rob Ware.
During the two meetings that have taken place this month, both Rome and Floyd County have made arguments and presentations on why one or the other should receive a larger cut of the sales tax allocation.
Per the agreement signed on Aug. 28, 2012, Floyd County currently receives 56.5% of the revenue while Rome receives 41.7% and Cave Spring gets 1.8%. The amounts each entity gets expires and must be renewed every 10 years.
“With the rising costs of goods and services that is affecting everyone, we are always looking for additional ways to maintain and improve our level of service for all Floyd County citizens, but there are only 100 pieces of the pie,” Mccord said. “The county would agree to maintain the current distribution, but if there is to be a change in the current LOST splits, we will be asking for more.”
However, Rome city commissioners and government officials are arguing that city residents are unfairly taxed and paying for county services that don’t apply to them, specifically county police.
Former County Assistant Manager Gary Burkhalter presented the county’s argument at the meeting on Tuesday, citing that the county provides many services for the safety and welfare of all of the residents both in city limits and in unincorporated areas.
In his presentation, Burkhalter said the county funds several services to the city, many of which are mandated by state law. A few examples include the Floyd County Superior Court, Probate Court, the Rome-floyd County Library and Richard B. Russell Regional Airport.
In addition to public safety service and other joint services, the county also provides around 12 miles in paving for city roads every year.
After Burkhalter finished his presentation, Phil Sutton, a LOST consultant hired by Rome, responded by saying many of the county services only serve the unincorporated areas and the county can’t double count the daytime population in the city limits as its own.
“Not all of these services are provided in equal measure,” Sutton said.
Still, the county countered by saying although a lot of services and businesses reside within Rome, the county serves all of the residents in one way or another.
An example of this is city residents in Hampton Preserve and Twickenham using the countyowned Chulio Road to travel.
In regard to the public safety argument, Sutton said the sheriff’s office could take over many of the county police duties and the unincorporated part of the county would pay for those services as a special tax district.
However, County Clerk Erin Elrod argued that that proposal goes against other counties in Georgia whose sheriff’s offices patrol the unincorporated parts of the county.
In response to paving, Cochran argued that the city’s recent contract with Northwest Georgia Paving for the paving of Riverside Parkway and First Street turned out to be a much better quality than the county public works, to which Mccord immediately disagreed.
Toward the end of the meeting, Watters said that although the meetings have been spirited, they are likely not going to come to an agreement.
“We work well together and for us to argue over a domino that’s going to create a domino effect that none of our citizens want for anyone that lives in Cave Spring or Rome or unincorporated Floyd County,” the vice chair said. “We’re not going to come to an agreement today. We’ve made our points, but we’ll make our recommendations to joint services and move forward, because I think our citizens expect us to work together.”
The Joint Services Committee will be meeting on Aug. 2 to continue LOST discussion.