Deadline passes on new sales tax proposal. Is a Hail Mary in the works?

Macon-Bibb County may have to look elsewhere for new ways to pay its bills, as the area’s state lawmakers passed a deadline without agreement on a referendum for a new penny of sales tax.

Macon-Bibb state House members from both sides of the aisle agreed in principle to help the county set up a vote on a new 1-cent sales tax on the dollar that would raise about $26 million a year.

But they split on how the cash-strapped county should spend the money. And in the wee hours of Thursday morning, the state House closed its 28th day of business without any Macon-Bibb bill vote, a deadline after which Gold Dome rules make it difficult to move a bill that hasn't gotten a floor vote.

The Macon-Bibb County Commission wants to use half the income from the extra penny sales tax to pay for a property tax rollback, and leave half for its regular operations.

Macon-Bibb’s two Democratic state House members signed a bill that would have started the process to set up a vote and a 50-50 split on the spending.

State Rep. James Beverly, D-Macon, started out opposed to a new "other" local option sales tax, or OLOST.

"But I understand Bibb has to deal with this," said Beverly, author of House Bill 967.

The county has dipped into its reserves for three years to pay its bills. Mayor Robert Reichert has said that the government needs to make cuts and manage its money better, but in the meantime, it needs new cash.

Macon-Bibb voters are already scheduled to vote in May on whether to raise the county sales tax from 7 cents to 8 cents on the dollar to pay for things such as roads and bridges. An OLOST on top of that would take the tax rate to 9 percent, the highest in the state.

"I think there needs to be some assurances from Bibb County that they'll manage the finances in a way that won't continue to put us in harm's way," said Beverly. "I think that's a more sensible way, so let's have some guarantees from them. I'm open, but we need to not be at this point again five years from now, seven years from now, and not do hocus-pocus with the finances."

However, the Republican majority in Macon-Bibb's House delegation signed different legislation. House bills 944 and 945 would have started the process of setting up a penny sales tax vote. But the county would have had to use all $26 million to offset a rollback of property taxes by the same amount. That would’ve been a cut of about 7 mills.

Republican state Rep. Allen Peake said that’s good policy.

“The consensus of the delegation was we should abide by what is in law now, which is a 100 percent rollback. Any change to that or deviation from that sets a bad precedent,” he said. “Property owners ought to get a 100 percent rollback if we add an extra penny tax, period.”

If that had happened, the county could still have raised the millage rate after lowering it. But such a convoluted plan might have been hard to sell to voters.

Both of Peake's bills were tentatively scheduled for votes on the House's 28th business day, but one needed "supermajority" approval, which he did not believe he could get due to Democratic opposition. Since the Legislature is nearly three-quarters of the way through its session, any vote on any version of an OLOST bill now would require some tough parliamentary moves.

Beverly said he will continue to try and get a vote on legislation to set up a vote and a 50-50 split of the revenue, but he admitted it will be difficult.

This story was originally published March 1, 2018 at 9:37 AM with the headline "Deadline passes on new sales tax proposal. Is a Hail Mary in the works?."