Friday, March 5, 2004
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Friday, March 5, 2004 |
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Officials work on SPLOST proposal Brown wants $23 million in new projects By JOHN THOMPSON Outside the windows of the Fayette County Administrative Complex Wednesday afternoon, the traffic ground to a halt as Fayette’s commuters tried to make it through the congestion surrounding Fayetteville’s square. Inside the complex, the assembled leaders almost reached gridlock on the question of a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to pay for transportation improvements. Wednesday’s meeting was a required element of Fayette County’s efforts to call for a vote on the issue in November. If passed, the one-cent sales tax is expected to generate at least $101 million over five years to help pay for the county’s ambitious $400 million transportation plan. But the latest monkey wrench thrown into the efforts was from Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown. Brown delivered a seven-page list of Peachtree City projects that he wants to see included in any SPLOST proposal. The list caught many of the leaders by surprise, since they weren’t included in the county’s transportation plan. “Peachtree City wants to see countywide transportation improvements, but I also have to show something to my constituents so they can support it,” he said. Included in the list is 41 projects ranging from building a bridge over Ga. Highway 54 west of McDuff Parkway to decorative signal poles on Ga. Highway 74. Brown said the projects for the five year duration of the SPLOST total $23 million, which is just 21 percent of the total amount that would be generated by the sales tax. In an e-mail Thursday, Brown said both the Georgia Municipal Association and the ACCG have signed off on an agreement for the state Legislature on the SPLOST issue that would allow the cities to have an equal say in SPLOST funding. He said the the mutual agreement would allow for SPLOST funding to be divided by population if the county and cities could not agree. “For Peachtree City, we would receive 35.6 percent. In the proposal that we extended to the county Wednesday, we were only asking for 21.1 percent, not even a proportional share,” he wrote. Brown’s list was met with coolness from many of the elected officials. “This is nothing more than a municipal road list,” said Tyrone City Councilman Mike Smola. Fayetteville City Councilman Larry Dell quipped he didn’t know the cities were supposed to bring a list of projects, but that he could come up with one quickly. County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn said the county would consider Brown’s list, but said the county already had a transportation plan that had been worked on for two years and that everybody had approved. “I objected to it through the whole process,” Brown said. Brown did say that he was generally supportive of the plan, but did not like the priority given some of his city’s projects and had a problem with the implementation schedule for other projects. Brown asked for another meeting to discuss the plan, but his proposal fell on deaf ears. The leaders agreed on several issues including a portion of any SPLOST proceeds would be allocated to the Local Assistance Road Program, which helps governments resurface roads. Another point of agreement was that some of the county’ smaller projects in the plan would be build during the five years, because the county’s top priorities such as the bypass around Fayetteville would take years to complete. “You’ve got to do projects that have high visibility. People have got to see a return on their money quickly,” said Dell. Peachtree City Councilman Judi-Ann Rutherford agreed. “You should have signs throughout the county saying this project was paid with SPLOST funds,” she said. The leaders also agreed to look at forming a committee made up of staff from the various governments that would monitor the SPLOST funds and re-prioritize any projects during the five-year run of the tax. One of the testiest moments of the meeting occurred when Commissioner Linda Wells asked Brown if he would personally support the SPLOST if his list of projects was not included. “I would have to see how the City Council felt,” he said. “She was asking you, Steve, not how the council felt,” said Rutherford. After nearly two hours of debate, the meeting adjourned and the county officials said they would study all the input before making any recommendation on how the SPLOST issue should be worded on the November ballot.
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