E-Mail
Print
At least two Carroll County Commissioners question why residents will be heading to the polls in March of 2012 to vote on a special purpose local option sales tax that will not be collected until 2015. They also challenge why voters will be asked to approve funding for a project list that may not be complete or specific for voters to see.
Commission Chairman Bill Chappell says bluntly, that he does not want the new and separate transportation SPLOST election to be held in the summer of 2012 to deter local residents from voting to continue with the county’s personal SPLOST.
“Obviously road maintenance will be needed. Obviously we need to do some things to develop water sources,” the Chairman responds to questions about a projects list. “But who at this point can tell what the cost is going to be (between 2015-21)?”
Chappell downplays “tying the county down” to a project list and says flexibility is key. “I’ll give you a great example,” he says. “The flood of September 2009… we had 56 roads wiped out and 2 bridges washed away. If the county had handcuffed itself with uses for SPLOST, we wouldn’t have those roads fixed yet or those bridges back. Because we had the flexibility we were able to respond immediately and restore those roads and fix those bridges.”
Chappell is reluctant to speculate on specifics the county may need after 2015. However, under consideration is what he calls road improvements associated with the county administrative complex. “That project is a tier-1 project which under Georgia law three different things can be tier-1; those are new court houses, new jails, or new administrative facilities. That’s paid for before anything else is.”
Chappell says tier-1 projects can be started before the first penny of 2015 SPLOST money is even collected. “In today’s economy… and contractor’s need work… we can get it done a whole lot cheaper than we can down the road,” he says. “And, the interest is so low right now that the savings on the project will far out weigh what interest is paid.”
The chairman says the conservative estimate on how much money the 2015 SPLOST could bring into the county is about $103M over 6 years.