Court Opinion

ID: 9568212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:01:31.653028+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:28.571257
License: Public Domain

CARLEY, Justice,
concurring specially.
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the Court of Appeals reached the correct result in Georgia Power Company v. Monroe County, 284 Ga. App. 707 (644 SE2d 882) (2007), and, therefore, I concur in our affirmance of the judgment of that Court. However, as Chief Judge Barnes noted in her articulate dissent in the Court of Appeals, both OCGA § 48-2-18 and our decision in Telecom*USA, Inc. v. Collins, 260 Ga. 362 (393 SE2d 235) (1990), can be read to support a construction contrary to that reached in this case by the majority in both this Court and the Court of Appeals. Georgia Power Company v. Monroe County, supra, 711 (Barnes, C. J., dissenting). Nevertheless, I can concur in the majority’s conclusion because of a footnote in Chief Justice Clarke’s opinion in Telecom*:
Some of the documents submitted by the counties or by the Board imply that the counties may appropriately modify only the “assessment ratio” before issuing a final assessment. However, neither the method for establishing the “final assessment” nor any possible limitations on the counties’ power to modify the Commissioner’s “proposed assessment” are squarely raised in this case. We do not reach these issues here. (Emphasis supplied.)
Telecom*, supra, 366, fn. 3. Because this Court specifically did not decide this issue in Telecom*, the majority’s resolution thereof in this *17case is appropriate, logical, and consistent with the “unit tax” method of assessment for public utilities.
Decided January 8, 2008.
Bullard & Wangerin, Kevin A. Wangerin, for appellants.
Troutman Sanders, Norman L. Underwood, T. Jerry Jackson, Roger S. Reigner, Jr., Kevin G. Meeks, Hay good, Lynch, Harris, Melton & Watson, Charles B. Hay good, Jr., for appellee.
King & Spalding, Ranse M. Partin, Nolan C. Leake, Chilivis, Cochran, Larkins & Bever, JohnK. Larkins, Jr., Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, James A. Orr, W. Scott Wright, Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell, L. Clint Crosby, Richard W. Bell, Alston & Bird, Mary T. Benton, Timothy J. Peaden, Meredith E. Mays, Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Warren R. Calvert, Senior Assistant Attorney General, amici curiae.