Habersham County voters will decide this fall whether to raise the local sales tax by a penny on the dollar to pay for local roads and bridges.
The Habersham County Commission voted Monday night to put a proposed 1% Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST) referendum on the ballot in November.
If approved, the tax would be in effect for five years.
Officials estimate the tax would generate approximately $35.5 million in new revenue. Of that, the county would receive about $27.1 million. The rest of the funds would be distributed among the seven cities and towns in the county based on the following percentages:
Habersham County 76.3%,- Alto 1.3%
- Baldwin 3.8%,
- Clarkesville 3.2%,
- Cornelia 8.7%,
- Demorest 3.8%,
- Mount Airy 2.6%
- Tallulah Falls 0.3%
“Substandard” roads and bridges
Habersham is on an approximate 40-year repaving cycle, according to the county. The life cycle of a newly paved road is about 15 years.
“This has resulted in a large volume of substandard roads and bridges,” the county says.
Currently Habersham funds a “large percentage” of its roads and bridges capital projects with SPLOST VI funds. Officials warn, “due to other projected needs, roads and bridges could, potentially, be drastically reduced if SPLOST 2021 is approved.”
They say it essentially comes down to two options: a property tax increase or T-SPLOST.
“Fair Tax”
The county has signed an intergovernmental agreement with the seven municipalities in support of the tax.
“In order to keep property taxes low, it was determined that the Roads & Bridges TSPLOST is a fair tax that would place the responsibility of roads and bridges maintenance on all who use our roads, and not solely on the property owners of Habersham County.”
The T-SPLOST referendum will be voted on during the general election on November 6.
