10/24/2022
LOST distribution negotiation update:
The LOST negotiations have not taken a pause and are currently ongoing. I participated in an important meeting in Alpharetta on Friday, Oct. 21 with several North Fulton Mayors, Commissioner Ellis and some city staff leadership. As you may be aware, I am not on the Fulton County negotiating team and have not participated in previous LOST negotiation meetings or mediation meetings with the Mayors since the public meetings last summer. I am pleased to share with you that significant progress was made in this meeting toward reaching an agreement that will allow both the county and our cities to maintain our current service levels and share in the future LOST revenue growth, without the need to have any property tax increases.
There was agreement by all in attendance at this meeting that the cities cannot have a reduction in LOST revenue as it is a significant percentage of their budgets, and that the county had emerging health care and public safety needs that will require significant funding. We discussed and agreed on a potential path forward for the cities to remain at their current collection levels for the beginning of the 10 year collection period, and devise a formula to share the 3% annual growth between Fulton County and the 15 Fulton cities in the following years of the 10 year collection period. We also all agreed to have our finance and leadership staff to meet in small groups this week to determine the appropriate finance models that reflect that goal of starting at the current distribution levels and sharing the revenue growth going forward.
Again, this meeting was very productive, and we are making great progress toward a LOST distribution formula agreement that will benefit all of our cities and Fulton County. I am very hopeful that we can announce that we have that agreement by this Friday.
As I have repeatedly stated, I regret that the county started these negotiations with an unrealistic request of 35% of the LOST revenue to replace the 5% the county currently receives. The partnerships between Fulton County and our cities are extremely important in serving the communities that we share, and has resulted in many positive programs including TSPLOST, COVID testing and vaccination programs, the Chattahoochee Nature Center programs and expansion, and the re-opening of the Alpharetta jail next month among so many others. I now am confident that we can reach an equitable resolution which will not result in the need for property tax increases in the future.
Stay tuned for more updates!
