Give Me My HOST Money!
Decatur Metro | March 19, 2009DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis met with the county’s mayors at Agnes Scott this morning.
I wonder how many of them said the above – couched in slightly more diplomatic language of course.
The HOST fight has rattled its way up and down the state court system for eight wonderful years at last count. If and when the County finally fesses up that it has illegally withheld sales tax funds that rightly belong to the cities, we’ll have millions more dollars to put toward capital improvements, which are currently funded by our property taxes.
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I imagine that, at least in Mayor Floyd’s case, the terms weren’t much more diplomatic than that.
One of the tragedies of the entire HOST mess is the legal fees we as taxpayers of DeKalb and Decatur have paid over the many years this has languished through the court system. It is very difficult to tell exactly how much has been spent, but one estimate puts it as high as $5 million. Now that is truly wasted money.
Another tragedy is the sad commentary (indictment) this has of our elected officials and their inability to resolve their differences. Why are they unable to responsibly resolve this matter? This whole mess dates back to when Elizabeth Wilson was Mayor of Decatur and Liane Levitan CEO of DeKalb County, not that it’s their fault, but that is how long this go back.
The cities and the county need to cooperate in many, many areas in order for our governments to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible. HOST is just one of one of these areas. Responsible officials need to begin a dialogue (hopefully today’s meeting was part of that dialogue) that ultimately results in a reasonable compromise that is fair and equitable to all citizens of DeKalb County. And we as citizens and voters should expect and demand more from those we elect.
AMEN, BB…