Wednesday, May 5, 2004

County commission expected to set SPLOST vote today By JOHN THOMPSON jthompson@TheCitizenNews.com Fayette voters could learn this afternoon if they will be voting for additional transportation dollars in the fall. The vote to call for a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is the top item on the Fayette County Commission’s 3:30 p.m. workshop meeting today. The vote is probably just a formality, since the commission has been working on the issue for the last several months. Commission Executive Assistant Carol Chandler said today’s vote will only include calling for the vote in November, and not outlining the specific projects that will be paid for through the extra penny sales tax. But, the devil is in the details, and it’s the details that have caused at least one local official to fight the county’s leaders on the fairness of the tax. Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown has been an outspoken opponent of the tax, because he believes his city is being shortchanged in projects and money from the proposed tax. The split became even more apparent at a recent meeting of the Association of Fayette County Governments. All the municipal leaders at the meeting except Peachtree City okayed a 70-30 split of the estimated $124 million the SPLOST would generate over six years. If the vote passes the commission Wednesday, it’s not yet known if Brown plans to launch a one-man campaign against the November vote. The SPLOST would be the key funding mechanism in the county’s ambitious 20-year transportation plan to free up many of the county’s traffic-clotted highways.