County officials are working quietly to position Jackson County to take advantage of a change in state transportation funding.
Beginning in 2012, multi-county districts in Georgia can begin holding referendums to impose 10-year one-cent sales tax levies to fund roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure. Districts that approve the new tax will be able to use those funds to access greater amounts of Department of Transportation funding.
Board of commissioners chairman Hunter Bicknell told the county’s Industrial Development Authority last Friday morning that he’s already attended three unofficial district meetings and that the county’s Road Committee has discussed the matter.
Speaking of a recent meeting of the latter, Bicknell said the group “talked at length about T-SPLOST and our projects around the county” that could be part of a regional laundry list of projects to be funded.
Bicknell listed a number of possibilities, including four-laning Hwy. 53 from I-85 to New Cut Road, creating a new interchange at Hwy. 60 and Interstate-85, bypasses of Jefferson and Braselton-Hoschton, improvements to Gum Springs Road, Hoods Mill Road, Waterworks Road, Hwy. 98 in Commerce and State Street (Hwy. 326) from downtown Commerce to U.S. 441.
“It was mostly a discussion of what could be on that list,” said Short, who also serves in the committee.
Bicknell agreed, and expressed a desire for Jackson County to get a head start on planning.
“We want to be one of the counties in the forefront through the process so we can get the projects we deem really important onto the list early,” he said.
The DOT is using a carrot-and-stick approach to get regions, which are identical to regional commission territories, to pass the sales tax. Jackson is in a district that includes Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Greene, Jasper Madison, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe and Walton counties.
If voters in those counties collectively vote in favor of a one-cent transportation tax during the 2012 general primaries, each county will receive 25 percent of taxes collected in that county. The remaining 75 percent will go to the region.
A regional roundtable, which will consist of the county commission chairman and a mayor from each county, will meet to discuss what road projects are put on a referendum.
If regional representatives fail to come up with a project list, then a “special gridlock” will be declared and county governments will be required to match 50 percent of all funding provided by the state for roads. If a region holds a referendum but voters reject the transportation tax, then counties in that region will be required to match 30 percent of all funds provided by the state. But if the referendum is approved, counties will only have to match 10 percent of funds provided by the state.
“There will be regions that don’t even have a vote,” commented IDA member Jim Dove. “I feel real good about the opportunities in our region.”
Dove directs the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission. He said that, so far, there have been three unofficial meetings of what will eventually become the regional transportation roundtable.
