Albany, Dougherty officials tout SPLOST benefits with referendum on horizon

ALBANY — The figure is staggering: $458,892,136. Slightly less than a half-billion dollars.

That’s how much money Dougherty County and the city of Albany have collected in 1 percent special sales taxes since Jan. 1, 1986, after the state OK’d the collection of special-purpose local-option sales taxes to help counties upgrade aging infrastructure. In the almost 30 years since that date, the faces of Albany and Dougherty have changed dramatically.

“SPLOST definitely changed the landscape of our community,” Dougherty County Administrator Richard Crowdis said. “It’s hard to even imagine what we would look like without that funding. Realistically, I don’t see how it would have been possible to do more than a small portion of what we’ve done any other way without raising taxes dramatically or going in debt.”

Indeed, the list of SPLOST-funded projects in Albany and Dougherty County is an extensive one, from industrial parks to government facilities to fire and EMS stations to construction of the county jail to library system improvements to law enforcement upgrades to emergency vehicle purchases to attraction improvements to information technology upgrades to miles and miles of street resurfacing and paving.

“We’ve been able to do things in the city that we would never have been able to do without SPLOST funding,” Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard said. “And when you consider that as much as around half of the SPLOST money that’s collected in our county comes from people visiting from outside the county, supporting SPLOST is a no-brainer. I don’t even want to think where we’d be without it.”

City and county department managers have already begun to compile their wish lists for SPLOST VII projects. A referendum on what has so far been an easy sell in Albany and Dougherty County is scheduled for November of 2016. If city and county voters pass the measure as they have in each of six previous referendums, the 1 percent tax will be collected uninterrupted through March 31, 2023.

“I should finish getting project lists from our department managers this month,” Crowdis said. “I’ll go through and look at what everyone’s asking for and prioritize them. I’m sure the city is doing the same thing.

“We’ll hold state-required public meetings to discuss possible projects, then get together with city staff to determine what projects will go on the actual referendum.”

All indications are that the list will be heavy on infrastructure projects.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that the tide turned for infrastructure with SPLOST VI,” Assistant City Manager Wes Smith, who has worked extensively on city-funded tax projects, said. “I think everyone realized that if we don’t push to get these important infrastructure projects done, they’re not going to get done.”

And that, Hubbard said, is one of her greatest fears.

“We’ve got to make sure those pipes underground are fixed and stable,” the Albany mayor said. “I know that throughout the SPLOST process, my emphasis is going to be on infrastructure. I believe that is a mandate we all would be wise to follow.”

The city of Albany receives 64 percent of SPLOST funding, Dougherty County 36 percent. The history of the tax in the city and county is one of constant change.

The city/county split was unofficially 60-40 through the first four SPLOST referendums. It was adjusted to a 62-38 split in SPLOST V and 64-36 with SPLOT VI. Each percentage point means potentially millions of dollars.

“Our city and county officials have worked together to make distribution of the funds equitable,” city Finance Director Derrick Brown said. “That’s important because we do not collect enough property tax to support (purchase of) the things we need.”

The state has constantly tweaked the SPLOST program since it OK’d the collections, allowing an approved referendum to cover only four years initially with funds restricted to “road, street and bridge projects.” With SPLOST II, the law changed to allow five-year referendums and allowed for collections to be used for “capital improvements.” “Community projects” were added to the projects list with SPLOST III and “debt retirement” with SPLOST IV.

Georgia lawmakers upped the collection period per referendum to six years with SPLOST V, so long as all city and county governments located within a county agreed to an equitable split. Albany and Dougherty County have utilized the six-year referendum with SPLOST V and VI, agreeing to the 62-38 and 64-36 percentages, respectively.

Collections in Dougherty County for the first four SPLOSTS totalled $56,340,740 (I), $67,266,860 (II), $84,686,174 (III) and $86,833,274 (IV). With the agreed-upon splits over SPLOST V and VI, the total respective collections amounted to $92,912,282 ($63,259,242 city, $29,653,040 county) and $70,852,806 ($45,001,026 city, $25,851,780 county) with a full year’s worth of collections left in the current SPLOST.

While Dougherty County voters have overwhelmingly approved each of the first six local SPLOST referendums, city and county officials took notice when the region voted down a statewide Transportation-SPLOST referendum that would have added an additional 1 percent to sales taxes in Southwest Georgia to fund specific transportation projects.

“We certainly hope the voters feel the same way about SPLOST VII as they did about SPLOSTs I-VI,” Crowdis said. “(The tax) has more of an impact on a retail hub city like ours. Our service delivery would be impacted dramatically without SPLOST funds. We have to put the services out there based on the funding we have.”