Georgia Justices Find County’s Stormwater Charge Permissible Fee

Athens-Clarke County, Ga.'s stormwater charge is a fee and isn’t subject to the Georgia Constitution’s requirement that taxes be applied uniformly, the state supreme court affirmed.

The Georgia Supreme Court already addressed the constitutionality of the same fee in a 2013 case, Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren wrote Wednesday for a unanimous court. The property owners challenging the measure don’t allege that there have been any changes since then, and brought the same dispositive question of whether the charge is a permissible fee versus a tax, she said.

Instead, Homewood Associates Inc. and other property owners alleged that they don’t ...