As lucky as I am that my daily “commute” consists of a 5-mile unimpeded drive on Arnold Mill Road, that good fortune doesn’t make me immune to nightmarish traffic situations.
For example, I got to enjoy the experience of a 15-20 minute delay to creep a quarter-mile along Hardscrabble Road to Crabapple Road the other night. That particular delay wasn’t expected, but I, like everyone else who drives in metro Atlanta, have spent plenty of time in other “regularly scheduled” traffic jams, such as the nightly bumper-to-bumper parade up Ga. 140 from Alpharetta to Hickory Flat or the 5 p.m. line of vehicles on Trickum Road between Ga. 92 and Ragsdale Road.
And, if you ask random folks around the county what the major issues are to them, transportation usually makes the list.
Not coincidentally, County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens has been talking about the county’s request to the Cherokee legislative delegation for a T-SPLOST at every meeting I have attended this year.
Specifically, Ahrens talks about a resolution that originated before last year’s General Assembly, wherein the Cherokee County Commission asked the state legislators to create a Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) in Georgia that local governments could use, if approved by voters, for transportation projects.
The General Assembly came and went, and, along with it, went the T-SPLOST resolution, which was never introduced.
This year, the Cherokee County Commission reiterated its request for the T-SPLOST, but with the twist that one cent could be portioned out for various uses, for example seven-tenths going toward transportation, two-tenths going toward public safety and one-tenth going toward parks or the arts.
How the additional one-cent sales tax was divvied up would be up to each individual county government that decided it wanted to put it on the ballot for a voter referendum.
The first time I heard Ahrens discuss the “fractionalized” penny tax, at a BOC meeting in December, I was intrigued. It seemed like a neat and efficient way to earn much-needed revenue and spread its benefits across a wide spectrum of public needs.
At the commission’s Feb. 16 meeting, Ahrens expressed frustration after hearing from Rep. Sean Jerguson, R-Holly Springs, that the T-SPLOST resolution the county asked for was on hold.
In Cherokee County, an additional one-cent sales tax equates to roughly $30 million of revenue. While that seems like a lot of money, when it comes to roads issues in our county, there are $1.8 billion worth of projects on the comprehensive transportation plan list encompassing GDOT, county, city and developer projects that include road widening, intersection improvements and bridge replacement. If we add in maintenance projects – resurfacing, filling potholes, etc.– to that comprehensive plan, the total reaches $2.2 billion … just for Cherokee County. The $30 million may be a drop in the bucket, but that kind of annual revenue can make a big splash in the same bucket.
There are only three counties in the Atlanta metro area – Cherokee, Cobb and Gwinnett – that would even be able to take advantage of the T-SPLOST tool our county commission has asked our legislators for. Under state law, LOSTs are capped at seven cents, and those three counties stand at six cents.
If that was all there was to the issue, it would be complicated enough … but, there’s more.
A similar transportation sales tax initiative, HB 365, introduced by Jerguson, would allow a referendum to create a one-cent T-SPLOST for a specified region.
Jerguson told me HB 365 is aimed at generating transportation revenue for all the counties in the Atlanta region.
Although the bill has a ways to go before it reaches Gov. Perdue’s desk, 1 percent of the revenue generated would go into the state’s general fund, the other 99 percent would be disbursed to the county from which it was generated.
A similar measure last year failed, in part, because the disbursement plan was for revenue to go into one pot and be distributed to each participating county based on its population.
This new version seems much more fair, is a painless way to get transportation money to revenue-starved counties and is a nifty way to help prop up the state budget, a consideration affecting every move our legislators make.
When I spoke to Jerguson after the county commission’s Feb. 16 meeting, he said Cherokee’s resolution for the statewide T-SPLOST item was on hold for now, because the legislators wanted to see how the regional bill fares. His concern is, if Cobb, Gwinnett and Cherokee were to also add referendums for the one-cent they have available, voters would face a two-cent tax increase and might vote both down.
I see Jerguson’s point, but he is underestimating our need for transportation money and our ability to understand the ramifications of an additional two pennies in sales tax.
Our delegation really has no right to deny us the chance to decide if we want to spend the penny we’ve earned. For them to withhold that opportunity, for any reason, amounts to punishing the county for being fiscally responsible.
Ahrens uses three points to support his argument: it is local control; it would indicate public approval (by passing as a referendum); and it is an additional tool the counties desperately need.
HB 365 and a T-SPLOST only affecting three metro counties need not be mutually exclusive.
Some simple math, which, by the way, I did while sitting in the Hardscrabble traffic, made the issue a no-brainer for me.
If we spend an average of 10 minutes per day wasting time in traffic that could be alleviated by road improvements, that equals about 61 hours – 2.5 days – a year.
By contrast, every $1,000 spent on taxable items each year breaks down to $10 out of pocket – or $20 for two pennies of T-SPLOST – to fix our traffic woes.
We were smart enough to end up with the extra penny when we need it, so I’m confident we are smart enough to decide between our money or our time.
