Voters content with the SPLOST — for now

It’s quite possible the most important vote taken in the Nov. 8 general election was not the ballot for who would sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. At least in Middle Georgia, and for Macon-Bibb County in particular, the most important vote was the approval of the $280 million special purpose local option sales tax.

While the 2011 SPLOST passed it was no cake walk. It followed a failure in 2010 when the city and the county couldn’t get on the same page. A similar defeat of a penny tax proposal occurred in 2004 when C. Jack Ellis was mayor and Tommy Olmstead headed up the county.

This time around opponents of the tax proposals had a hard time countering evidence of the good the one penny brought to all corners of the county from fire stations to recreation areas. The proposal for the 2018 SPLOST passed with 61 percent of the vote, and while the presidential tally drew 1,644 more votes than the SPLOST, the SPLOST drew 1,822 more votes than the U.S. Senate race in Macon-Bibb County. That should send a message to the Macon-Bibb County Commission that its process for involving the public in deciding the projects included in the SPLOST was the right one.

But the real tipping point for voters has to be the commission’s efforts to do what they said they would do. In other words, they said they were going to build fire stations — and they did that. They said they were going to build and refurbish recreation areas and they are doing that. Filmore Thomas Recreation Area, something promised four decades ago, opened to the public last week. Log Cabin Drive, where Filmore Thomas Recreation Area is located is receiving a major overhaul, including sidewalks and a pedestrian bridge.

Many of the other recreation centers are undergoing much-needed face-lifts as well. South Macon is finally getting a recreation center. Central City Park is undergoing a $3.7 million upgrade. Commissioners said they were going to build a new animal shelter — they did that. And a new senior center is on its way and the downtown connector is becoming the new front door to Macon at Mercer University Drive and Interstate 75. And SPLOST money has allowed the city/county to start to address many of the unsexy infrastructure issues — and with the new SPLOST, we can finally start the process of closing the landfill.

There are a few special things about this next SPLOST that are very different from previous penny tax proposals. This SPLOST will start April 1, 2018. Why did the county leaders bring the issue to a vote in 2016? Couldn’t all of this have waited until 2017? It could have, but having an early vote is a sign of something that has rarely been seen in this part of the midstate: Prior planning. Looking into the future and setting it up for success.

Many of the projects will be continuations from the $190 million SPLOST that won’t expire until March 30, 2018. The effort to fight blight is ongoing, so is storm water management as is the closing of the landfill. Knowing money to complete projects already started, or having the ability to take them to the next phase because funding has been secured, is a really big deal. Many of the infrastructure needs of the community will continue long into future SPLOST proposals.

There is also money for economic development, refurbishing the City Auditorium, the Grand Opera House and equipping public safety. Approval of the 2018 SPLOST also gives the county the ability to borrow up to $100 million to jump-start the projects in the proposal early. This SPLOST will also last as long as it takes to raise $280 million, rather than the traditional cutoff of six years.

Certainly there are those who look on the SPLOST as a permanent tax. They have a point. Still, in the end, citizens ultimately decide when to end it, and right now, voters must think they are getting a pretty good bang for their pennies — and the pennies from the people who shop here but don’t live here. Such a deal.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Voters content with the SPLOST — for now."