The Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in the case of an Athens shopping center owner who doesn't want to pay his stormwater bill.

Homewood Village LLC, owned by Howard Scott, owes Athens-Clarke County $72,739, not including late fees, for stormwater utility bills dating back to 2005. But lawyers David Ellison and Regina Quick say their client shouldn't have to pay the fee because it never agreed to pay the fee and never received any service or benefit in return. On the other hand, they argue in court briefs, if it's really a tax, then it violates the Georgia Constitution.

They filed a lawsuit against ACC in 2010. In March, Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens technically ruled in favor of both ACC and Homewood Village, but he agreed that the fee is a fee and ordered the company to pay its debt plus interest. "We got everything we wanted," ACC Attorney Bill Berryman said.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that stormwater fees are legal in McLeod v. Columbia County. ACC's law is closely based on Columbia County's, according to Berryman. Ellison says they're significantly different, although he declined to elaborate.

Money does, in fact, fall from the sky in Athens. ACC created the stormwater utility fee—derided as a "rain tax" in conservative quarters—in 2005 to meet a federal clean-water mandate. The money, about $3 million annually, pays for new infrastructure, maintenance and inspections. The commission opted for a fee, rather than fund the program with property taxes, so that tax-exempt landowners like the University of Georgia, the Clarke County School District and churches would have to pay their fair share.

The fee is based on a property's impervious square footage, such as rooftops and parking lots, where runoff flows freely, and the property's use and density, which determines how much and what kinds of pollution generally run off.

Rain falling on Homewood Village runs into a tributary of Hunicutt Creek, then into the Middle Oconee River, carrying pollutants like oil that leaked from cars with it. The water quality in Hunnicut Creek near the shopping center is poor, according to an ACC study.

Berryman said he expects a ruling no sooner than February.