Voters in Monroe County, Forsyth and Culloden will have their say in March about whether to renew a one-cent special purpose local option sales tax for six more years.
The Monroe County Commission voted unanimously this week to place a SPLOST on the ballot. Commissioners are aiming for a March 6 referendum, according to Commission Chairman James Vaughn. That will put the vote several months before Monroe County voters also will decide whether to impose an additional one-cent sales tax specifically for transportation projects.
Passage of the SPLOST would keep Monroe’s sales tax rate at the current 7 cents on the dollar while subsequent approval of the 10-year T-SPLOST would raise it to 8 percent. The SPLOST now under way was expected to bring in $28.2 million, Monroe County Administrator Anita Buice said.
“We’re on target for those projections, maybe even a little more, but of course it’s hard to tell until it’s all said and done,” she said.
If approved, the new SPLOST could bring in about $2.4 million more than that, according to county estimates.
The SPLOST currently in effect doesn’t expire until 2013, and if approved the new SPLOST would pick up where that one leaves off.
“I think our county has had a SPLOST ever since the law allowed for that,” Vaughn said.
The new SPLOST list includes many “sorely needed” projects, he said.
The biggest single item on Monroe County’s list is $3.1 million for replacing its emergency radio system, in line with a federal mandate.
Other line items for the county include $7 million for roads and bridges, $7 million for water service, $2.5 million for recreation and $1.2 million for a business incubator.
Forsyth’s focus will be on “a couple of major sewage upgrades” that have been postponed for years, Mayor Tye Howard said. That and the replacement of decades-old water lines will account for $3.2 million of the $4.6 million Forsyth expects to receive from the SPLOST.
Another $550,000 is earmarked for roads and bridges, while $470,000 would be directed to public safety. That would buy four police cars, but the most important feature under the public safety category is joining in the new federally mandated radio system, Howard said. The new system will let Forsyth police communicate directly with Monroe County sheriff’s deputies, he said.
“There’s a lot of benefits in this transition that’s coming,” Howard said.
The radio system must be in place in 2013, so the city and county likely will have to borrow against anticipated SPLOST proceeds to buy it in time, he said.
Like Forsyth, Culloden plans to spend the bulk of its SPLOST proceeds on water infrastructure. That’s $475,000 of the $550,000 allocated for Culloden.
“We’re very pleased with our allotment, and that should go a long ways toward redoing many of our water lines, which are either old or undersized,” Culloden Mayor Steve Eller said. The rest of the money would go to work on historic buildings and stop erosion at two cemeteries.
If voters don’t approve the SPLOST, any capital improvements would have to be paid for from money in the county’s general budget, which is funded largely by property taxes, Buice said.
Howard and Vaughn noted that much of the sales tax revenue comes from visitors, particularly those who stop at businesses along Interstate 75.
Telegraph writers Phillip Ramati and Mike Stucka contributed to this report. To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489.
