In the coming weeks, Chatham County leaders will decide whether to schedule a 2013 vote on another round of SPLOST. They’ll make that decision after consulting leaders of all the municipalities in the county.
There’s a lot at stake.
SPLOST stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax — a 1 percent sales tax dedicated to a specific list of infrastructure projects.
As detailed by reporter Eric Curl last week in this paper, the current SPLOST collection expires on Sept. 30, 2014. If voters approve a new round of SPLOST this year, then Chatham County consumers would continue paying a total of 7 percent sales tax without any change or interruption.
For a variety of reasons, local voters have generally approved SPLOST by solid margins.
The project lists have been crafted to ensure that many citizens will see tangible benefits. Plus it generally seems easier to convince voters to continue an existing tax than to begin a brand new one.
And there’s a strong argument in the fact that a significant portion of the tax is paid by visitors.
In 2006, 60.3 percent of Chatham County voters supported our current SPLOST collection.
But keep in mind that fewer than 24,000 voters turned out for that special election.
That’s a pitifully low number.
Back then, it was generally believed that a specially called election would improve the chance of SPLOST passing, but we can’t be quite so sure today.
With the mobilization of anti-tax groups and with last year’s thumping of T-SPLOST in a low turnout election, it seems likely that SPLOST will fare better in a general rather than a special election.
Given today’s more volatile political environment, officials might decide to wait until 2014 for a scheduled vote.
Why wait?
It’s probable that the economy will be stronger next year, which could make some voters a little more optimistic about the continuation of the tax and a little less cynical about government stewardship of the funds.
Waiting another year could also give SPLOST proponents time to create a more thoughtful project list and mount a more effective campaign.
Whether the vote is held this year or next year, elected and appointed officials are definitely going to have some explaining to do.
Citizens will be repeatedly asking why major projects from the 2006 list haven’t been finished or, in some cases, even started.
There are fairly straightforward answers for the inevitable questions, but there’s so much cynicism right now that many voters simply aren’t going to accept the explanations.
Voters’ frustrations about incomplete SPLOST projects are due primarily to the protracted economic downturn.
When voters went to the polls in 2006, officials estimated the tax would raise $445 million countywide.
After a deep recession and a weak recovery, SPLOST’s final haul will be about 15 percent less than that, something like $379 million.
But the real effects of the downturn went much deeper.
Since Chatham County’s new jail was guaranteed full funding, the rest of the municipalities’ project lists had to be trimmed by closer to 20 percent.
Even that number understates the problem, since some major projects were never expected to be fully funded by SPLOST dollars in the first place.
The city of Savannah’s proposed new public safety headquarters and new arena, for example, would have needed tens of millions from other revenue sources beyond the 1 percent sales tax.
The economic decline decimated those additional revenues too.
So, even though voters approved a new arena and a public safety headquarters nearly seven years ago, neither project is anywhere in sight.
It seems virtually certain the city of Savannah’s project list will include significant funding for one or both of those big-ticket items, which will make the campaign even tougher.
While it’s easy to explain why those projects haven’t gotten done, local officials haven’t been proactive enough in making the case.
Before the next vote, leaders of Savannah and other municipalities might also want to craft a deal that somehow makes up for the imbalance of the current SPLOST. Since the jail received full funding while other line items were cut dramatically, there’s a good argument for additional consideration for other municipalities’ projects, especially major ones like a new arena and a new police headquarters.
Chatham County and our various municipalities are already arguing over the division of the revenues from LOST — the ongoing 1 percent Local Option Sales Tax.
A feud over how to divvy up SPLOST funds could also make the tax a tougher sell at the polls.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net and http://www.billdawers.com. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.