CLEVELAND - White County Commissioners, Cleveland and Helen City officials met at the White County Courthouse Monday to tackle a task that none of them looked forward to...begin negotiations on a formula to distribute local options sales tax (LOST) collections. It's something that has to be done every 10 years. Currently the funds are distributed with the cities receiving 20-percent each and the county 60-percent.
Helen City Manager Jerry Elkins told the commissioners that they wanted the county to know how important LOST funding is to them. He pointed out that Helen city leaders just raised the millage rate to meet the budget.
Cleveland Mayor Don Stanley pointed to the fact that Cleveland will be using $300,000 dollars in reserve funds to meet the coming year's budget. Both cities let it be known they need the distribution formula to remain the same.
After a time of discussion, much of it centered on how the 20-20-60 formula was derived, it seemed no one knew how the formula was originally agreed upon.
Commission Chairman Travis Turner asked that each of the cities have their managers meet with County Manager Mike Melton to determine a basis for the formula, so future officials will have something to work with.
The county commissioners agreed informally to keep the distribution formula the same.
Friday
May 17th, 2024
10:08PM
