Authorization to Enforce Collection of Taxes, Fees, or Assessments

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  1. Any city, county, or authority which operates a solid waste handling facility or provides solid waste collection services or both and which levies and collects taxes, fees, or assessments to accomplish the purposes of this part shall be further authorized to enforce by ordinance or resolution the collection of taxes, fees, or assessments due a city, county, or authority in the same manner as authorized by law for the enforcement of the collection and payment of state taxes, fees, or assessments. Any such ordinance or resolution enacted by a county governing authority may provide that the tax commissioner or tax collector of such county shall be the officer charged with the enforcement of its provisions.
  2. The provisions of this Code section shall apply to any taxes, fees, or assessments due a county, city, or authority under any ordinance or resolution in effect on July 1, 1992, or adopted thereafter.

(Code 1981, §12-8-39.3, enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 3276, § 17; Ga. L. 1993, p. 399, § 10; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1081, § 3.)

Law reviews.

- For note on 1992 enactment of this Code section, see 9 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 199 (1992).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

County ordinance covering payment of garbage collection fees.

- State constitution, statutes, and case law permit a county to enact an ordinance making property owners responsible for the payment of garbage collection fees for the owner's rental property. Board of Comm'rs v. Guthrie, 273 Ga. 1, 537 S.E.2d 329 (2000).

Sanitation assessments were not taxes within the meaning of the Georgia Constitution but rather charges for services rendered by a county, which was authorized to enforce by ordinance the collection of fees for solid waste collection services in the same manner as authorized by law for the enforcement of the collection and payment of state taxes, fees, or assessments; the county's solid waste collection fee did not violate Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. I, Para. I. Strykr v. Long County Bd. of Comm'rs, 277 Ga. 624, 593 S.E.2d 348 (2004).

Contract with private solid waste collection companies.

- In choosing the option of contracting with private solid waste collection companies, a county was, through that method, providing solid waste collection services to county property owners within the meaning of O.C.G.A. § 12-8-39.3(a); the fact that the individuals performing that service were not county employees, but employees of private contractors, was of no moment, insofar as it related to a property owner's constitutional challenge to the county's solid waste ordinance. Mesteller v. Gwinnett County, 292 Ga. 675, 740 S.E.2d 605 (2013).


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