County, cities tackle LOST, water rates

With their governments in a fourth straight year of declining tax revenues, the political tug of war among county and city officials over available resources is intensifying. A four-month standoff over how to divide the next 10 years of Local Option Sales Tax revenues was finally resolved last week when the Winder City Council approved the county’s latest offer in which the county government will receive 62 percent of the monthly revenues and the cities will split the other 38 percent.
However, a fight with even higher stakes for both the cities — and water customers throughout the county — has just begun. Two hours after the Winder council approved the new LOST agreement on Aug. 2, the mayor and four councilmen — along with officials from Auburn and Braselton — sat in on a called meeting of the Barrow County Water & Sewerage Authority, the purpose of which was to discuss possibly doubling the wholesale water rate.
For the full story, see the Aug. 8 issue of the Barrow Journal.