LOST talks between Fulton County and cities go nowhere

A last-ditch attempt to get Fulton County, Atlanta and 13 other cities to agree on how billions of dollars in local sales tax revenues should be returned to taxpayers over the next decade failed Friday. County and city leaders met at the county Government Center, but they remain too far apart on what percentage the county government should get of roughly $220 million per year in local option sales tax, or LOST, revenues, three mayors told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Unless an agreement is reached by the end of the month — which is unlikely — the distribution formula will be decided by a Superior Court judge from outside the county, who must pick one of up to three proposals with no room for middle ground in a process known as “baseball arbitration.” The process was put into state law to encourage cities and counties to work together, so the talks wouldn’t reach that point.