Franklin County Municipalities Get Break Down of Proposed T-SPLOST

Franklin County is moving forward with developing a referendum for voters to decide on in the spring regarding whether a new 1% transportation sales tax should be instituted to help pay for road repair and resurfacing.

At the November Board of Commissioners meeting, County Manager Beth Thomas explained that the Franklin County would not be receiving enough funding from the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Local Maintenance Improvement Grant to repair more than three county roads in 2020.

Thomas told the Board the County will be receiving $617,000 in LMIG monies from the Georgia Department of Transportation.

With a County 30% match from SPLOST funds, that will come to just over $800,000 in 2020.

However, she said under a new State law passed by lawmakers during the last General Assembly, all counties in Georgia can now levy a Single County  Transportation Special Option Local Sales Tax or TSPLOST.

“Other counties in the State have gone for a single-county transportation funding – a 1% sales tax added to what’s already there that is specific to transportation funding. In order for us as a County to do that, we would need to go before the voters. There are certain steps that we have to follow and one of the first things we have to do is to reach an agreement with the municipalities,” she said.

Funds generated from the TSPLOST must be for the sole purpose of transportation purposes.

According to Thomas, the sales tax can be levied up to 5 years at a fractional rate up to 1 percent in 0.05 percent increments if there is an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the qualified municipalities.

Thomas recently met with the leadership of all five county municipalities to discuss the new TSPLOST and get their thoughts on whether to put a referendum before the voters in the spring.

In that meeting, Thomas recommended the same distribution of T-SPLOST revenue to the municipalities as the current SPLOST distribution.

Under that distribution, the County would receive 73.21%, Lavonia and Royston, 7.35% respectively, and Carnesville, Canon, and Franklin Springs would each receive 4.03%.

Thomas tells WLHR News the mayors appeared to be receptive to the idea, but said they needed to take the information back to their council members.

She said no other intergovernmental meetings are planned unless requested by city leadership.

If all municipalities agree, Thomas said she hopes to have a referendum ready to send to the State by the end of December to be put on the March ballot.