City Predicts Long-Running HOST Dispute Will Be Decided Next Month
Decatur Metro | May 19, 2011Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss writes in the “Budget Message” (see page 8 ) to the City Commissioners that the city believes the Georgia Supreme Court will make a final ruling in City of Decatur et al. v. DeKalb County next month.
For the uninitiated, the HOST dispute revolves around DeKalb County cities believing that the County has unfairly distributed sales tax proceeds established under the Homestead Option and Sales and Use Tax agreement in 1997. Four DeKalb cities – including Decatur – sued the county way back in 2000. This will mark the third time the case has been ruled on by the Georgia Supreme Court.
Over the years, the money under contention has really added up, with Decatur stating as recently as February 2011 that it was owed over $10 million from the county in HOST money for capital improvements.
Back in February when the case was argued before the Supreme Court, some of you expressed doubt that the County could pay the City of Decatur and other DeKalb cities, tens of millions of dollars if they lost the suit. However, the City Manger’s note says this…
Should the litigation be resolved in the City’s favor, we would anticipate receiving significant funds for capital improvements by 2013.
What would Decatur do with $10 million for capital improvements?
Latest from Decaturish
Replace the Gazebo on the square;)
sand volleyball courts at all of the parks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
with a full size Bocce court nearby!
I realllllly want sand volleyball courts! the city website says there are 3 at parks around here, but i’ve been and haven’t found them yet. called the active living/rec dept today, the woman who answered the phone said she didn’t know anything about volleyball courts, and asked me to call the glenlake tennis center, they didn’t know anything and asked me to call the active living /rec dept.
awesome.
Can’t say I’ve seen any either and I’ve hung about all of the parks at some time or another. Maybe they are a coming feature….?
The Decatur Eye!
see http://www.londoneye.com
See page cool smiley face…?
If Decatur should get the money under the agreement, they should get the money. But man, DeKalb County is a mess. See the latest AJC story about plummeting tax revenues. I wonder what they’ll do if they’re ordered to cough up all of that money to the cities?
Pay off the Stealth Bonds
Actually, I think that is a substantial part of the plan, no?
I’d take more than $10m
It’d. (but me too)
Hasn’t the City said that before . . .
Bury power lines!
YES YES YES YES
+ 1
Someone posted an idea way back about the county “paying” the city by ceding ownership of desirable assets, for example, some of the downtown properties.
Does the county own any of the land along the RR tracks, or is that all owned by CSX?
It might also be possible to use the owed money as leverage in discussions to annex commercial properties along College Ave and E.Ponce toward Avondale.
The railroad right-of-way (approx 100 ft wide) is owned by the railroad.
uh, how about lower taxes?
lower taxes = paying off stealth bonds
How about sorely needed traffic calming measures that didn’t make it into the big plan?
While I second Daren’s thought about burying power lines (why oh why didn’t we do this A LONG time ago) it seems to me that we are robbing peter to pay paul. The money is coming from a county that is squeezed dry already, so even if the court rules in favor, I wonder how long it will be before Decatur sees a dime. And by the way, we are all DeKalb County taxpayers also, so would we see a spike in our taxes if Decatur won this? Please illumniate this clueless citizen, if you can.
This, yes. Also, don’t we all still rely on DeKalb for some needed services, I’m thinking particularly of the water situation, that are hurting for funds. Just seems we’re hoping to get a big chunk of a nonexistent pie.
I imagine that Decatur residents would indeed be on the hook for any settlement via increased county taxes, but I suspect their portion of that would be relatively small. In the end the city might get back 75 cents on the dollar?
Decatur has a population of about 20,000, and Dekalb County has a population of around 700,000. (That’s about 3% of the county’s residents living in the city of Decatur.) The residents of Decatur will come out way ahead if the ruling goes their way, and people in unincorporated Dekalb will pay.
No calls for a roundabout at Nelson Ferry?
+1
Free Westchester
Goodness, people. It shouldn’t be used to pay off any stealth bonds – or anything else public. That’s my money – and all of yours, if you’ve been living here since then. My parents own property in unincorporated DeKalb that is appraised at 2-1/2 times my dinky little place in Decatur , yet I pay MORE in property tax. Not just more comparatively, but more in absolute dollars.
It is not derived from property taxes.
It’s money collected from sales tax and acrued interest.
It belongs to the city of Decatur.
Sorry folks, it doesn’t belong to any public entity like Decatur – it’s our money individually.
“DeKalb County created the 1-percent sales tax on most goods sold in the County in 1997 to offset property taxes on homeowners ”
At the time every homeowner in unincorporated DeKalb saw an immediate, sizable reduction in their property taxes -except for owners in the few cities like Decatur. There was a big stink at the time because the original language clearly included every homeowner in the county – which includes me and all of you long-time owners.
I want my money.
Thank you for the explanation.
Information about this blatant rip-off has been scrubbed from county tax information available on the internet very well. I would love to get more information about this if anyone can supply a link. I bought a home in Decatur after the law passed and thought that it was funding the GH.
It’s more crap written by me, but here’s my original description of HOST from back in 2008…
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2008/04/15/millions-on-the-line-as-host-dispute-goes-before-ga-supreme-court-again/
Peep: Consolidated city-county
Here’s the relevant line from my parents’ 2010 property tax bill in unincorporated DeKalb:
“THE HOST CREDIT OF 1,182.26 IS THE RESULT OF AN ADDITIONAL HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION FUNDED BY PROCEEDS FROM THE HOMESTEAD OPTION SALES TAX.”