Macon, Bibb voters give a resounding yes to SPLOST

With elections for Macon city offices uncontested or in little doubt, the focus of Tuesday’s balloting was the special purpose local option sales tax. That’s what Macon Mayor Robert Reichert concentrated on, joining various business and political leaders at the Poplar Street office of Macon-Bibb Wins, a group that formed to promote the tax.

There Reichert and a couple dozen other people waited for results to be projected on the wall from the Bibb County Board of Elections website.

The room got quiet about 8:20 p.m. as the first precincts reported, but the crowd quickly turned happy as SPLOST approval took a large early lead.

With all votes counted except provisional ballots, the SPLOST passed with 14,809 votes supporting it and 5,572 votes against.

The $190 million SPLOST referendum, which will increase Bibb’s sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent on April 1, 2012, drew strong support across Bibb County.

In the Macon-Bibb Wins office, attorney Calder Pinkston declared victory when only a handful of precincts were reporting, triggering an upbeat response from Reichert.

“I think Macon and Bibb County have reached a turning point,” the mayor said. “I think this bodes extremely well for our future.”

The tax will pay for a variety of public safety, recreation and infrastructure improvements such as three new fire stations, a major new recreation complex in south Bibb County, upgrades to existing recreation centers, storm drains and road repairs and the purchase of land near Robins Air Force Base to help solve the encroachment issue.

Often cited as the top public safety priority is a major upgrade to Macon-Bibb County 800 MHz radio system that allows communication between the 911 center and public safety officers and firefighters. That project alone costs $8 million.

Reichert was confident in his own victory over write-in candidate David Cousino, but he was concerned early on about the sales tax vote that would set the tenor for his second term, which begins next month.

Both the city and Bibb County governments based part of their budgets and their long-awaited service delivery deal this past spring on the expectation that voters would approve a SPLOST this fall.

Had it not passed, Reichert said, Macon would “muddle along” looking for other ways to pay for essential items and would postpone some items on the SPLOST list.

About $93 million of the $190 million in projects are things that city or county must pay for no matter what, officials said. Several local officials, including Reichert, signaled that failure of the SPLOST would trigger big local property tax increases next year.

Cousino, whose write-in campaign included opposition to the SPLOST, acknowledged Tuesday night that the measure had passed, but he doubted that its proceeds would be spent as promised.

The law governing SPLOSTs does allow for money to be shifted around to some extent, depending on the feasibility and actual cost of the proposed projects. Local officials have promised creation of an oversight committee, yet to be named, to supervise spending and progress on SPLOST items.

Cousino, however, said elected officials must be “held accountable” for a wide range of spending. The flow of funds from the SPLOST merely gives them more latitude for indulgence, he alleged.

The SPLOST is expected to put tens of millions of dollars into debt retirement, public safety, recreation, economic development and infrastructure. Residents seemed to rally around some of the middle-sized projects the tax would pay for, such as $2.5 million to complete the Tubman African American Museum and $3 million for a new animal shelter.

That was fine for Patti Jones, chairwoman of Central Georgia CARES, an animal rescue group and friend of AC Pup, Macon Animal Control’s mascot.

“This is a great night for the animals and for the people of Macon and Bibb County,” Jones said after it became apparent the SPLOST would win in a landslide. “They did not let us down. They did not let AC Pup down, and they did not let his pound pals down. It’s been a long time coming, and we’re just thrilled.”

Bibb County Commissioner Lonzy Edwards was excited to see such strong support for the sales tax.

“We’ve needed this for a long time, and I think it will give us a big boost to our perception, to our confidence in ourselves as a community, and I think it will do a lot of things for our community that we simply have no way to provide for without going back to property owners,” Edwards said. “So I think this is just a great, great day.”

Perhaps the most controversial item on the SPLOST list was the Tubman, despite the small fraction of the $190 million SPLOST total it represented. While its supporters insisted the Tubman had to be in the SPLOST list to win their backing, others predicted that including the museum would be a “deal-killer” for some voters.

Tuesday night Andy Ambrose, executive director of the Tubman, said he wasn’t following results closely, but he was glad to hear early in the night Tuesday that the SPLOST -- and therefore the Tubman’s funding -- appeared headed for easy passage.

“I’m encouraged that the vast majority of the voters saw worth in the projects included in the SPLOST,” he said.

Ambrose said he would personally have supported the SPLOST whether the Tubman was included or not, since many essential items were on the project list. But he welcomed the result as a chance to benefit the community as a whole.

“I do think the new Tubman museum is going to have a very significant economic and cultural impact, not only in Middle Georgia but throughout the state,” he said.

State Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, who didn’t have a formal role in the SPLOST vote but worked for its success, said the strong support showed Bibb County is moving in a new direction.

“People are ready to put aside the old partisan part of politics, and let’s get our community moving forward. As for me, I’m all for it, and I’m ready to lead the charge,” said Peake, who is pushing for Macon and Bibb County to consolidate governments.

Voters across Bibb County were sometimes skeptical about the SPLOST during the campaign, but some residents wanted non-residents to share in the costs of the projects. They said a sales tax was the only fair way to do that.

Darlene Robinson of south Bibb County said she didn’t like a high-pressure game with SPLOST, but she cast her vote for it to spread the tax burden.

“If you’re going to threaten me for my property tax, I didn’t care for that very much,” she said. “But if you do threaten me with my property tax, then everyone should pay.”

Robinson, who lives on a dirt road, said she liked using SPLOST money for infrastructure but not for other projects such as the Tubman museum.

After voting at Vineville Academy, retiree Larry Bunge, 63, said he didn’t oppose what the SPLOST would pay for, but he voted no anyway.

“I would have voted ‘yes’ if I thought they were going to spend the money on the things they said they’ll spend it on, but I don’t think they will,” Bunge said.

Retiree Randall Mathews, from south Bibb County, wants improvements for roads, an animal shelter, a Juvenile Court building and law enforcement equipment. He also wants other people to help pay for it.

“I think we need help on the tax,” Mathews said.

This story was originally published November 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Macon, Bibb voters give a resounding yes to SPLOST."