SPLOST project list gets agreement

Without the continuation of the sales tax, the Barrow County Board of Commissioners starting in 2012 would have to cover the debt by either cutting $6 million from the annual operating budget or raising the property tax rate by close to 4 mills.

The debt obligations are for the $58 million in general obligation bonds issued in 2006 for the criminal justice center and other county projects and for the county’s share of the cost of building the Bear Creek Reservoir. The reservoir is a major source of drinking water for residents and businesses in the unincorporated areas of the county and in Auburn, Braselton and Winder.

AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE

Barrow County commission chairman Danny Yearwood said last week that he and the mayors had passed the first hurdle in the path toward the referendum – how to split the proceeds. This is the $50 million deal:

•The county would take off the top $27.9 million to cover the six years of payments on the bond debt.

•That would leave $22.1 million in estimated revenues over the six-year cycle that would be split among the county and cities based on each jurisdiction’s population.

•The county government would get 60 percent or $13.26 million, and the municipalities together would get 40 percent or $8.84 million.

BETTER DEAL FOR CITIES

For the municipalities, the new deal represents a significant improvement over the current agreement.

Right now, the municipalities are receiving only 9 percent of the total monthly SPLOST revenues distributed by the Georgia Department of Revenue to Barrow County, because both the bond debt and the reservoir debt are taken off the top, and the cities only receive a small share of what’s left.

In the new SPLOST cycle, only the bond debt would come off the top. The additional $8.6 million in reservoir debt instead would be taken from the county’s portion of the remaining proceeds.

According to a draft agreement that Braselton town manager Jennifer Dees distributed to each government on Oct. 1, that would leave the county with $4.66 million in sales tax revenue from 2012-2018, and all of it would be used to improve roads, streets and bridges.

Winder would receive $4,687,714; Auburn $2,388,636; Statham, $968,184; Bethlehem, $365,908; Braselton, $322,088; and Carl, $107,468.

Winder would use about $3 million for water and sewer system improvements and about $1.68 million for roads, streets, curbs and bridges – including storm water structures.

That could be part of the solution to the storm water funding issue in Winder.

Street improvements also are on the list of planned projects in Auburn, Bethlehem, Braselton, and Carl. (See complete list of projects in box on this page.) Statham would spend all of its sales tax proceeds on water and sewer improvements.

And Auburn would use the $1.78 million to build a public works facility, to acquire a municipal complex, to renovate an event center, and to make parks and recreation improvements.

GOVERNMENT VOTES THIS MONTH

Winder Mayor Chip Thompson told his city council on Monday that once the intergovernmental agreement has been finalized, it would be brought to each governing body for approval.

He said he would call a meeting sometime this month in order to keep the issue on track for the March referendum.

Auburn Mayor Linda Blechinger, chairman of the Barrow County Mayors Association, told the Barrow Journal this week that SPLOST revenues are “very important” to counties and municipalities.

Noting that some of the taxes are paid by visitors who shop in the county, Blechinger said all of the local governments have projects that are needed and that the funds may be spent only on “qualified capital projects and debt service.”

Like the county, she said, some of the cities have debt service obligations to cover.