Local government officials and municipalities have been meeting to discuss TSPLOST. They are planning to place it on the Nov. 5 ballot in 2019.
“This is our first effort to push TSPLOST,” Liberty County Administrator Joey Brown said.
TSPLOST is a transportation special-purpose local option sales tax that is used for transportation purposes and projects.
In 2010, the Transportation Investment Act provided an opportunity for regions across the state to impose a 1 percent sales tax to fund transportation improvements in their region, according to ggfoa.org. Only three of the 12 regions in Georgia were successful in passing the tax in 2012.
“When TSPLOST first passed as a law it had to be voted on as a whole by the region and either passed in every county or failed in every county,” Brown said. “It was voted on in the Coastal Georgia Region a few years ago and failed, but it passed in Liberty County.”
According to ggfoa.org, in 2015 the Georgia General Assembly passed a Single County TSPLOST that allowed individual counties that are not part of a regional effort to levy a sales tax solely dedicated for transportation.
“The law changed because some of the counties went to the state legislature and said it’s not really fair, our people wanted the tax and their’s didn’t.” Brown said. “So the next year the legislature changed the law where they still offered the ability as a county to get together with other counties, or do it on our own, and we’re doing it on our own.”
In order for a Single County TPSLOST to be imposed, the county must already have a SPLOST in effect at the time of TSPLOST adoption. Also TSPLOST, unlike SPLOST, is exempt from the sale or use of any type of fuel and the purchase or lease of any motor vehicle.
“We are in our sixth SPLOST and it has been continuous except for one year it didn’t get voted back in,” Brown said. “You’ve got to have SPLOST before you can have TSPLOST.”
A Single County TSPLOST can be levied up to five years at a fractional rate up to 1 percent in .05 percent increments if there is an intergovernmental agreement with the qualified cities within the county, according to ggfoa.org.
Officials in Liberty County estimate TSPLOST will bring in around $40 million over five years. Once you take out the exempt sales which are estimated around $2 million, it would leave Liberty County with a net of approximately $38 million in revenue, according to the county administrator.
The Georgia Department of Transportation says at least 30 percent of the net revenue must go to a Statewide Transportation Plan project and the remainder could be split up amongst the county and cities.
At the meeting Monday, local government officials and mayors from each city discussed TSPLOST and potential projects including the US 84 Hinesville Bypass that would help with the traffic caused by tractor trailers traveling through the area.
“It’s just one penny and it is the fairest across the board,” Brown said. “It is the way that a community like ours with transient population needs to build these infrastructure projects, because of their cost. We are heavy in transportation with people coming in and out. All you have to do is get on the road to find out.”