In City of Decatur v. DeKalb County , 284 Ga. 434 668 SE2d 247 2008, the Supreme Court of Georgia vacated our most recent opinion in this action involving a contract dispute over the disbursement of tax proceeds between DeKalb County and several cities located therein.1 See DeKalb County v. City of Decatur , 287 Ga. App. 370 651 SE2d 774 2007. The Supreme Court held that we erred by addressing the constitutional issue of whether the contract in question was one for services under the Intergovernmental Contracts Clause of the Georgia Constitution of 1983, Art. IX, Sec. III, Para. I a. Thus, we vacate our previous opinion and adopt the opinion of the Supreme Court as our own. Furthermore, for the reasons discussed below, we vacate the trial court’s judgment and remand the case to that court to address the constitutional issue in the first instance. This case has a long procedural history and has been before our appellate courts on more than one occasion. In January 1998, DeKalb County and the Cities entered into a 49-year agreement under which the County was required to make annual disbursements to the Cities from tax proceeds generated from a Homestead Option Sales Tax “HOST” approved by county voters the “Agreement”. A dispute subsequently arose over how to calculate the disbursements owed to the Cities. As a result, in March 2000, the Cities commenced the instant action for breach of contract, conversion, and attorney fees against DeKalb County, alleging that the County had failed to accurately calculate and distribute the HOST tax proceeds under the Agreement.
DeKalb County moved for judgment on the pleadings, which the trial court granted on the ground that the Agreement violated the HOST statute. While this Court initially affirmed, see City of Decatur v. DeKalb County , 255 Ga. App. 868 567 SE2d 332 2002, the Georgia Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari and reversed the judgment. See City of Decatur v. DeKalb County , 277 Ga. 292 589 SE2d 561 2003. The Supreme Court, however, left open the issue of whether the Agreement violated the Intergovernmental Contracts Clause of the Georgia Constitution.2 See City of Decatur , 277 Ga. at 294.
