Liberty County already has begun its seventh special local option sales tax, and SPLOST VI ended with a high note.

County chief financial officer Samantha Richardson said April’s collections were the second-strongest in SPLOST VI’s history, bringing in $1.2 million. The high water mark for SPLOST VI collections came in October 2020, when it hit $1.36 million in revenues.

All told, SPLOST VI brought in a total of $61.7 million, $7.7 million more than originally anticipated, Richardson said.

Commission Chairman Donald Lovette also cautioned that future monthly collections may be affected by the deployment of several thousand soldiers from Fort Stewart to eastern Europe. The deployment of soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, the 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade, the Division Artillery and the 3rd ID headquarters will last nine months.

“There is a deployment going on and I am interested to see if there is a dip,” he said.

SPLOST VII, which began in May, started with $997,000 in revenue, $74,000 more than what the county anticipated. Richardson also offered county commissioners “a sneak peek” into July and August’s collections, which are expected to be more than $1 million for each.

Collections for the transportation-SPLOST, or TSPOST, also were strong, Richardson said. That penny tax brought in $951,000 in June and more than $1 million each in July and August. So far, the TSPLOST has collected $29.6 million, bringing in $1.2 million more than what was anticipated.

“It continues great,” Richardson told commissioners. There is a cap on how much TSPLOST can bring in. The tax ends when it hits that limit, County Administrator Joey Brown said.

Lovette said he has received several positive comments about the City of Hinesville’s new fire station, which was built with SPLOST proceeds.

“Let folks know SPLOST is the sponsor of those projects,” he said.