SPLOST votes needlessly complicated

Macon-Bibb County taxpayers will go to the polls Nov. 8, and one of the questions on the ballot will be whether to continue the additional penny sales tax that has been in force for the past four-plus years and will expire in March 2018. That SPLOST was expected to raise $190 million over its six-year life, and so far residents can see exactly what the extra pennies have paid for — from a new juvenile justice center and animal shelter to fire stations to multiple recreation center upgrades including a new $7.6 million facility in southern Bibb and redesigns of centers in east and west Macon.

All of those benefits should attract votes for the next SPLOST. However, in short order, the polls could flip. Mayor Robert Reichert told the commission that collections for the sales tax might run behind projections by $10 million. Macon-Bibb is not the only area feeling the SPLOST pinch. Houston County at a recent Eggs and Issues Breakfast said it was running about $12 million short of its sales tax collection projections. The reason? Some believe they are losing sales tax dollars to online retailers. Could that be possible?

The short answer to that question is: They don’t know. The Georgia Department of Revenue told this newspaper it doesn’t keep track of where the sales taxes originate. It can’t tell you whether sales taxes are coming from a brick and mortar retailer or one that only exists in the digital domain. It seems that needs to be looked into.

As a matter of timing, the discussion that’s soon to be held in Macon-Bibb — about what to cut back on if the collections come up short — probably won’t affect the November vote, but if voters wondered why the question for the next SPLOST is being held more than a year before the present SPLOST ends, here’s a clue.

If the actuals meet projections, and that’s a big if, that won’t be known before the vote. But if it appears there is a shortfall, the passage of another SPLOST is also a solution. New funding would address any concerns. However, if collections are coming up short, as it appears they are, and there isn’t a new SPLOST waiting in the wings, which projects get cut back becomes an open question — one that won’t be discussed until after the SPLOST vote. Not a bad strategy. Any tax, even one that keeps the rate the same, needs all the help it can get.

When all is said and done, voters by their very nature will have a difficult time remembering the $180 million in projects the SPLOST funded, but they would have no trouble remembering the $10 million that wasn’t spent, particularly if the shortfall impacted a project on their wish list. And some voters would use that information like a cudgel the next time a SPLOST is proposed.

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "SPLOST votes needlessly complicated."