Fayette voters' rejection of an extra penny of sale tax to pay for new schools last week did not escape the notice of the county commissioners, who are looking for ways to fund a new jail and court complex.

“There may be enough antitax bias out there that you can't float anything,” said Commissioner Greg Dunn, who has been actively involved in planning for the complex, which is expected to cost more than $60 million.

“But we're going to have to proceed,” he added.

Commissioners have numerous options as they begin talking about funding for the project next month, including asking the voters to approve a special purpose local option sales tax, as the Board of Education did.

But failure to win voter approval of either a SPLOST or a general obligation bond, another option that requires a referendum, could be disastrous, said Dunn.

“The dilemma we're in is that if the public says `no' to a bond or a SPLOST, we can't do anything for a couple of years, and we don't have that kind of time. The feds will be upon us.”

Fayette's jail is currently holding more than double its capacity on many days, and eventually a federal judge could order that the county build a new jail, and that order probably would include specific instructions that the county must carry out, no matter how expensive, experts say. It has happened in other Georgia counties, commissioners say.

The county has assembled about 65 acres between Lee Street and Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard, including the current jail site, and consultants have drawn preliminary site plans for the complex.

Dunn said he hopes within the next month or two the commission can come up with a funding plan and hire an architect.

Board members haven't gotten down to brass tacks on the funding discussion yet, saying they didn't want publicity on their discussions to interfere with the school board's SPLOST vote.

In addition to a sales tax or a general obligation bond, commissioners have other options the school board did not have, including impact fees (charged to developers to pay for the impact new developments have on county services), certificates of participation (COPS — a mechanism whereby the county could borrow the money through the state at a low interest rate), and revenue bonds (bonds guaranteed by the county's property taxes).

The last three options don't require a public vote, which can be seen as a positive or a negative, said commission Chairman Harold Bost.

“Whatever we do, there are going to be those who call us idiots and those who say we're doing the right thing,” he said.

For his part, Bost said, “It's going to take an awful lot of figuring” for him to decide which way to go. The key, he said, is weighing the short-term and long-term impact on Fayette families.

A sales tax will pay for the project more quickly, and about 30 percent of the revenue will come from nonresidents who shop at Fayette businesses, he said. Bonds will spread the cost over decades, allowing newcomers years from now to pay a share and tapping local businesses and industries as well, he added.

Commissioner Herb Frady has argued for a SPLOST ever since the board first started discussing plans for a new jail, and he said last week's school board vote hasn't changed his mind.

“I think if we give the people a clear enough objective, they would vote for it,” he said. “I think they understand we've got to build this jail.”

Frady said a long-term bond is expected to cost a local family of three only $89 a year, whereas a sales tax would cost $312 a year, even with 30 percent of the cost paid by outsiders. But the SPLOST would continue for only five years, costing each family about $1,560, whereas payback of the bond would take 30 years and cost about $2,670 per family.

“Personally I'd rather go ahead and pay it off as soon as possible,” he said.

“We have differences of opinion on the board about how we should fund this thing,” said Dunn. “But the taxpayers are going to pay for the jail either through a millage rate [property tax] increase or through the SPLOST.”

In the end, he added, none of the options may appeal to the voters. “I'm fully prepared that this might be politically unpopular,” he said. “We were elected to make some tough choices, and we have to do it."

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