THOMASTON CITY MANAGER RUSSELL THOMPSON ON FLOST

Sales Tax revenue is synonymous with property tax relief. To conflate the two is a misunderstanding of House Bill 581 and its intended impact on property tax savings for our community. The chairman’s misinterpretation is excusable due to his limited time in office and limited experience of the political landscape. The city has requested significantly less than half the sales tax that would be generated. We feel that less than half is a fair compromise when the ultimate goal of the sales tax is to lower the property taxes proportionate to the contribution of our great City businesses and extraordinary citizens. They are the ones that provide the economic services that generate this county’s economy.

They say that opinions are like Andys, everybody has one…. ours is this: 

If the county commission chair and the tax commissioner believe the only solution to increased property taxes is levying an additional sales tax, then city residents who bear the burden of cost for economic and industrial development should be entitled to no less than 40%.  We still feel that according to our math, this remains less than half, and is still possibly too great a concession.