Alpharetta is hiring special counsel to represent the city in negotiations with Fulton County over the distribution of Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds. Law requires Fulton and their cities to begin negotiating this distribution every ten years following the most recent census.
The county and each of the 15 cities have two years after the census to complete the negotiation or LOST vanishes as a revenue source. For Alpharetta, that could mean up to $20 million.
Division of funds is determined, in part, by each city’s population although that can be calculated several ways (daytime versus nighttime population). As each Fulton County city has emerged and grown, Fulton County’s portion of the populace has dwindled.
Alpharetta Mayor Jim Gilvin stated his concerns at the city’s recent council meeting, “If Fulton County doesn’t get what they want, they can kill the process and kill the tax that will cost their taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.”
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