On July 31, voters of Georgia will consider whether to earmark a new penny of sales tax for transportation.
Local revenue would be collected to fund local projects placed on a regional constrained list with additional revenues coming back to the local communities for other transportation projects.
Those unconstrained funds, received based on population and roads miles, could be the added cushion Jackson County needs to avoid an ad valorem tax increase to maintain its road infrastructure system, suggests Jackson County Commission Chairman Hunter Bicknell, who headed the Northeast Georgia Regional Transportation Roundtable.
With a revenue projection of $987,987,352 for Northeast Georgia, the roundtable of county commission chairmen and mayors developed a list which was the subject of three public hearings. The economic development impact of T-SPLOST across Georgia could reach $19 billion in direct investment over the next decade.
A effort to inform voters about this summer’s referendum is under way, and Douglas Callaway, Executive Director of the Georgia Transportation Alliance, is leading public information efforts on the regional transportation sales tax campaign for the 11 regions outside of metro Atlanta.
Connect Georgia is the campaign organization created to inform the public and advocate the passage of the TSPLOST, and a three-phase strategic plan is in place with the planning and organizational effort being led by Callaway. The phase now under way is to capitalize and persuade to work into the final phase, execute and win.
On Jan. 19, Callaway and Jason O’Rouke were at a meeting of the Northeast Georgia Transportation Roundtable to discuss next steps for the referendum on a regional transportation sales tax.
The roundtable’s executive committee met Jan. 11 with Callaway.
“The meeting was very beneficial, and we look forward to partnering with the Georgia Transportation Alliance in this endeavor,” said Bicknell, in calling for last week’s gathering of the entire roundtable. The session was held after the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission council meeting.
After Callaway’s presentation to the roundtable, Bicknell said the possibilities for job creation ring clear and he is certain that Jackson County would not have been able to add more than 2,200 new jobs in the last two years without the investments that have been made in transportation infrastructure.
But he reminds that maintenance and improvements on existing roads have been financed through the county’s general fund.
“If we want our state to be competitive, and most of us would agree that we would be opposed to any new tax, but in this instance, this is a way to offset other new requests for funding that would be required for transportation,” said Bicknell.
For Bicknell, T-SPLOST offers a means to offset a hike in the property tax or a sales tax that those riding through the state would help pay. The T-SPLOST would be more of a user tax since those travelers would be helping to pay for road improvements across the regions. It would hopefully eliminate the need for some other revenue sources.
“Hopefully we would be able to the hold on our millage rate,” said Bicknell, who notes that reassessments have lowered property tax collections with no compensating revenues. Finance Director John Hulsey has put Jackson County commissioners on notice that financial pressures may prompt the recommendation for a millage rate increase.
“This is one move that may help us hold the line on our millage,” said Bicknell.
Other county and city leaders, including Jefferson Mayor Jim Joiner, also consider the transportation initiative to be essential.
For Mayor Joiner, the T-SPLOST vote is a no-brainer.
“When you are going to get 25 percent back to work on roads and bridges in the City of Jefferson, that more than doubles my budget for road projects,” said Joiner. The benefit for communities is unquestionable, he notes. “It benefits us in so many ways.”
“As Doug said, it’s ‘Jobs. Local. Safety.’,” said Joiner.
To see more on the initiative including the projects proposed for Jackson County and all of Northeast Georgia, visit www.ConnectGeorgia20l2.com
See more in the Jan. 26 print edition of The Paper.
