Macon Appropriations Committee Recommends 60-40 Split Between City, County on Local Sales and Use Tax Revenue

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A tax agreement between Macon and Bibb County has to be re-negotiated every ten years, and Monday night, the Appropriations Committee got the ball rolling on the process.

The tax is called the “LOST” tax, which stands for Local Option Sales and Use tax.

For the last ten years, 60% of the revenue has gone to the city, while the county has gotten 40%.

Monday night, the committee voted unanimously to keep the same split ratio between the two governments, but what’s new this time is that 18% of LOST revenue will be taken off the top
and placed in a special fund used for recreation, as agreed upon by the two governments in the 2011 Service Delivery Strategy agreement.

With consolidation of the city and county just over a year away, chairman of the committee, Tom Ellington, says there was no real need to make any drastic changes to the ratio.

“If we were going to have separate governments for any appreciable period of time, I would have preferred to have some study on this and examine whether that split is the most equitable one,” says chairman of the committee, Tom Ellington. “But the fact is that we’re talking about the next 16 months, and any changes in that split would be fairly marginal.”

Starting in January 2014, there will be no more need for a revenue split.  100% of LOST proceeds will be given to the newly consolidated government of Macon-Bibb County.

The full council will vote on the committee’s recommendation at Tuesday night’s meeting.