Questions answered by Lamar Paris, County Commissioner
Questions Feb 1, 2012 TSPLOST Public Meeting Part 1
Since we had a TSPLOST public meeting Monday night at the Civic Center, hosted by the Conservative Business Alliance, I thought I would try to repeat some of the questions asked at the public meeting over the next three weeks.
The TSPLOST referendum (Transportation SPLOST) is a result of House of Representatives bill HB 277 and will come to a vote in July of this year. If the sales tax is passed by the public, this bill will add one penny to the sales tax and will be for transportation projects only. 75% of the funds are for state highway projects in the Georgia Mountain Region and 25% of the funds will go back to individual counties based on their road miles and population for local county road construction, improvements and maintenance.
Q. What is one of the real advantages you see in this new TSPLOST legislation?
A. The legislation required that a "Roundtable" committee be formed made up of a mayor and commissioner of each of the 13 counties in our region, plus three Legislative members (29 members). It was very interesting to see, over time, how we all came to work together to arrive at a list of regional transportation projects that not necessarily benefited just our county or city, but also the entire region.
Q. Will Union County receive as much money in transportation projects as we collect in sales tax?
A. Yes, The estimate is that over the ten years of the TSPLOST (Transportation Investment Act - TIA) Union County will collect approximately $45 million. We would receive approximately the same amount in projects. $25 million would cover the cost of Union County’s two regional projects and $20 million would be returned to Union County for local county road projects.
Q. What are Union County’s regional projects?
A. The first project is upgrading the Glen Gooch bypass to divert truck traffic from the square in downtown Blairsville and that is scheduled in the 2013-15 time frame. The second project is 4 laning Hwy 129 North from Blairsville toward the North Carolina border which is scheduled for 2020-23.
Q. Will this TSPLOST sales tax be paid on food?
A. Yes. It will be paid on the same items that our local SPLOST and Education SPLOST are paid on, which includes food. However no SPLOST is charged on purchases made with food stamps.
Q. If Union County votes TSPLOST down but other counties in our region vote yes, will we still have to pay the sales tax?
A. Yes. This is a regional vote. At the same time, if we pass the TSPLOST in Union County but it fails region wide, we would not have the tax. It has to pass by 50% plus one vote in the entire 13 county region if it is to be enacted.
Q. If we vote NO but the region votes YES will our projects still be completed and will we get the money for local use?
A. Yes. If it gets 50% plus 1 vote region wide every county will get their projects done and receive the local discretionary money based on the formula outlined.
To be continued next week