PERRY, Ga. — City and county leaders are warning state lawmakers that a Georgia Supreme Court decision on a single county’s fire fee could ripple through local budgets across the state.
The issue came up Wednesday when a House blue-ribbon panel studying how local governments raise and spend money held its meeting in Perry. Speakers told the panel that fees for things like trash pickup, stormwater and recreation help them pay for services without leaning only on property and sales taxes, and that the ruling has put that approach in doubt.
In the case, the high court sided with Chatham County property owners who said the county’s fire service fee was really a tax. Because the charge was set by the expected cost of putting out a fire on each parcel, partly based on building size, rather than on property value, the justices agreed it was an illegal property tax. Refunds plus interest owed to property owners in the class action come to roughly $30 million. It quit collecting the fee in June 2024.
Perry Mayor Randall Walker told the committee the ruling worries his city and municipalities generally, adding that fees let a city charge for what a service costs instead of what a property is worth. Decatur City Manager Andrea Arnold said her city has been trying to grow revenue beyond property taxes and now sees the future of fees as uncertain. She noted that property taxes already supply 66% of Decatur’s general fund, and 58% of that fund goes to salaries for police, firefighters and other key staff. Rome City Manager Sammy Rich gave the panel another sense of the pressure: a fire truck his city ordered in 2021 for $500,000 cost more than $1 million by the time it arrived.
A big piece of the problem is property that pays no tax. Colleges, hospitals and nonprofits still need fire protection, and without a fee, other property owners carry that cost. A leader with the county commissioners’ association told the panel only lawmakers can fix it, by rewriting either a statute or the constitution so service fees are clearly allowed.
Rep. Mike Cheokas of Americus asked local officials to bring the committee ideas for solving it. The panel is set to meet again next Wednesday at the Capitol in Atlanta, where the fee debate could pick back up as lawmakers weigh wider property tax changes for the 2027 session.
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Filed under: Atlanta GA Politics News
