SPLOST SPLOST
By FRANK BRADLEY Sentinel Writer

Union County Commissioner Lamar Paris gave Tuesday's SPLOST presentation.

For more than 20 years, Union County has collected an extra penny for every dollar spent on retail sales in the county to use for some special purpose projects determined by the Sole Commissioner.

The tax was first voted on in countywide referendum in 1986, when it passed as it has every four or five years since. All in all, there have been a total of five elections during which the sales tax was approved, sometimes by a wide margin.

On Tuesday about 120 Union County residents packed the courtroom to hear an hour presentation by commissioner Lamar Paris on why the public should once again vote to extend this special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST).

The SPLOST is set to expire in the spring of 2009, and a proposal to extend it, this time for six years, will appear on Union County's ballot during the Georgia Presidential Primary scheduled for February 5th.

From the tenor of those assembled, it appeared the great majority were in favor of keeping this extra one cent sales tax; however there also appeared to be considerable differences as to how the money should be spent.

Clint Deaver expresses his concerns regarding a depressed economy.

There were also some folks following the presentation who questioned whether the projected revenue of $31,500,000 over six years was indeed realistic.

Paris contended in his presentation that his calculations were based on past revenues, assuming a 7.5 percent per year growth rate. He said the average growth rate since 2003 has been13.19 percent per year. If his projections were to hold, the county and city would reap approximately $3,600,000 per year in sales tax collections that could be used for local projects.

Of the $31.5 million to be collected, Paris said $12 million would be budgeted for improvements to roads and bridges, and the other $19.5 would go for numerous other projects, which he outlined.

Among those projected projects were: expansion of the jail, acquisition of 31 acres of land near to Meeks Park for expansion and facilities development, improvement in a recreational playground, building a covered outdoor stage at Meeks Park for music concerts, improvements in the county's horse arena, expansion of the Suches Community building, renovations and expansion at the Senior Center, renovation and expansion at the library by adding 4,500 more square feet, purchase of sheriff department patrol cars, add an extra 40 to 50 feet on the fire department building, purchase a new ambulance every year, renovate and expand the solid waste transfer station and recycling center, construction of a Farmers Market/ livestock arena and cannery, restoration of the Pat Haralson Civic Center, build a multi-use building for Economic Development offices with an upstairs community room and new golf pro shop, renovation of the County Administration Annex building, restoration of the old gym, install an elevator in the old courthouse, improvement of the Byron Herbert Reece facilities, moving and restoration of the old Choestoe Schoolhouse, grade bank and make parking lot in front and back of the county's animal control facility and provide $2 million for the City of Blairsville for city hall expansion, water and sewer facility improvement as well as street improvements.

Paris said if the bond referendum passes, he would wait until spring to see what the economy is like, then he would go to the bond market and borrow $7 million to begin the projects in order of priority.

He said the advantage of doing this would be that the interest rate would be lower than the inflation rate so that it would make sense to begin some of the project soon. Also,he pointed out that there are a lot of people out of work and that it would create jobs for them.

"The government has got to stand up and help people in hard times," Paris said.

Passing the SPLOST will help keep property taxes low; will provide jobs for Union County citizens and it will help promote Economic Development," he said.

Following Paris's presentation, several in the audience had question and some made comments expressing their thoughts.

"You talk about lowering taxes. Mine have just doubled. How come property tax went higher," Ray Swaims asked. Swaims said. Swaims said he had gone into the county's Tax Appraiser's office to complain and was told if he didn't like it, he should move to another county where he doesn't have to pay taxes.

Paris said he did not control over other county offices. That they were supervised by other county elected officials.

Tony Dyer, a candidate running for county commissioner, made the statement, "The difference in Lamar (Paris) and myself is that he is an idealist as opposed to being a realist.

I'm against collecting that amount of funds and wasting them. We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. He asked what was wrong with putting all the SPLOST money into the road department, where you can get state match, and then paying for some of the other projects for which there is no state match, out of the county's operating budget.

Paris said, "This is not a campaign forum."

Another questioner asked, "Are you going to give the Fire Department back the money they spent on fire engines.?"

Paris answered saying that he had not been asked by the Volunter Fire Department. "If they ask me, we'll talk," he said.

The question was raised about why the fire fighters were not being adequately paid. paris answered saying that everybody in the county comes to him for pay raise. He said he doesn't have the money in the county budget to pay everybody what they think they are worth.

"I talk with them," he said. "Try and be fair, paying them the going rate for the area. If I start to see employees leaving, we try to get their pay up. To pay them as much as we can afford."

A spokesperson for the Saddle Club asked about more money for the arena. He said there were several from the club there. That they had been promised money for improvements, but nothing has been done.

A woman identified as Patty Barnes spoke up saying that this was not a meeting about allocating funds.

"It's for getting the money from sales tax or property tax," she said.

Paris added that he has noting to do with property assessment or with school tax. He said that Union County had the third lowest property tax in the state.

Another lady said, "As a property owner, I'm glad to see people who visit here will have to pay something. People come, stay, buy. We'll all benefit from the events (suggesting she approved of the money being used to improve facilities which will draw tourists who will spend money here.)

Paris said the reason that the SPLOST proposal is going for a six-year tax vote and is including the City of Blairsville in it, is to make it open ended.

He said under the previous SPLOST tax arrangements, the county was limited once its revenue ceiling had been reached, but not so with the 2008 joint city/county proposal.

Someone asked if new projects could be added to those listed in the tax proposal. Paris said they could not.

"We can't go back and add projects," he said. "That's why we tried to make the projects a little broad. So we will have a little wiggle room."

Clint Deaver asked, "What if the economy gets bad and we can't pay back the bond loan, won't the county have to pay it back out of the general operation budget, and wouldn't that mean higher property taxes?"

Paris agreed; however, he said that he was taking a conservative approach. "We'll see what the trend is doing," he said. "The projects cost $15 million. I'm going for a $7 million bond loan. What happens if we only get $7 million in sales tax revenue in six year. We're in trouble."