First on Decatur Metro: The Georgia Supreme Court just overturned the GA Appeals Court’s decision that ruled in favor of DeKalb County and its greedy withholding of the 1-cent sales tax money that rightfully belongs to DeKalb’s cities (over $8 mil due to Decatur at last count).

The reason?  The Supreme Court thought the Appellate Court overstepped its authority in deeming the original contract between the county and the cities as “unconstitutional”, since the term “services” had never been defined by the Supreme Court (which is its job).  Or at least that’s how I read the legalese.

But since the low-level trial court didn’t originally rule on this case, its getting thrown back to the Appeals Court to reconsider it again…this time without the option of deeming the contract as “unconstitutional”.

Now I’m no lawyer (can’t you tell?), but this sounds like a huge blow for the county.  Any lawyers out there want to weigh in?

The full ruling can be read here (or you can just read the summary after the jump).

As to why you should care about this case, take a look at this old summary I wrote back when the GA Supreme Court heard it, or just take the mayor’s word for it when he says you have two options for lower city taxes: annexation or winning the HOST ruling.

Also, a HUGE shout out goes to Thomas Wheatley, who provided me with this info that I’ve been waiting on for nearly 6 months!

UPDATE: The AJC picks up the story.

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