Kingston, GA – A possible two percent mileage rate was on the radar for Kingston city residents following last night’s Kingston City Council meeting.
Council members voted on whether or not to approve the process of a 2% mileage rate for road improvements and more police which caused pushback from city residents.
Residents voiced their concerns about the possible mileage rate throughout the meeting.
One resident, Patresha Northgraves, handed out email threads and official documentation between the city and the Bartow County Commissioner’s Office concerning Local County Sales Tax (LOST) meeting dates from two years ago.
Kingston was the only city to not attend these meetings.
“So, my question is you want to impose a mileage rate, but you didn’t show up to meetings,” Northgraves stated.
In 2022, Bartow County invited all seven cities to decide on how to split sales tax revenue.
Despite not having any Kingston city officials in attendance, all other cities were able to negotiate a deal.
Kingston was left with less than a third of the tax percentage that they received two years ago.
Mayor Chuck Wise said at the meeting that he did not know of or receive any emails concerning LOST meetings.
The present city attorney also weighed in on the matter as well claiming that LOST is based on population and that the city’s population was not growing at the time.
“The LOST is based on population, and with other cities and places in the county growing, Kingston at the time had hardly grown that much,” the attorney said.
The council denied the proposed 2% mileage rate, which would have been on the upcoming November ballot for residents to vote on.
WBHF will have more on the story tomorrow.