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The University of Georgia
GA Looks to Sales
Tax to Fund
Transportation
Coroe July 31, Athens-Ctarte County vot
ers will elect judges, county commissioners,
sheriff, school board members—most run
ning unopposed—and also decide if package
sales of alcohol should be made legal on
Sundays after more than 100 years. Republican
Regina Quick will challenge Democrat-tumed-
Republican Doug McKiUip for Me Ki Hi p's state-
house seat; and in newly redrawn county
commission districts, five seats are up for
election including the open seats of retiring
commissioners Alice Kinman and Ed Robinson.
Two school board seats are also open.
Also on the ballot: a new 10-year, one-
cent sales tax for transportation. All Georgia
voters will approve or reject the tax, known
as T-SPLOST, region by region, along with
regional project lists that were decided last
year by local elected officials. If the new
tax is approved in the 12-county Northeast
Georgia district, ACCs sales tax would rise
from seven to eight percent. State legislators
came up with the plan to supplement gas tax
funding of transportation projects. In Georgia,
gas tax revenues are down because people .
drive less or use more efficient cars, but rais
ing the gas tax is considered a nonstarter
politically.
The sales-tax plan gives locals more
choices in where the money goes than they
have with traditional funding—gas-tax money,
for example, can only be used for roads and
bridges, never for buses or trains (or even for
sidewalks except when roads are being built
or widened). If the sales tax passes, bicycle
lanes will be added to Prince Avenue—a fairly
expensive project requiring street-widening
in places, and one that the state would never
fund (and the county might have trouble
affording).
If the new tax passes, most of the money
will be collected in the Athens area, since
that's where most of the region's money is
spent (Our region also includes Elberton,
Covington and Greensboro.) And in some out
lying counties, that's a selling point
"Madison County officials say that the
T-SPLOST is a way for the largely rural county
to draw sales tax revenue from more com
mercially developed areas, such as Athens and
Banks Crossing," reports the weekly Madison
Journal Today. "Since Madison County has a
lot of road mileage, it stands to gain a larger
portion of the T-SPIOST funding for local proj
ects than some more populated counties, like
Oconee."
Three-quarters of the tax revenues would
go to a list of projects already picked by a
regional roundtable of mayors and county offi
cials (represented in Athens by Mayor Nancy
Denson and Commissioner Alice Kinman).
The regional projects (to be built if vot
ers approve) include widening US 78 east of
Athens (a project much desired by Oglethorpe
County officials); four-taning Ga. 72 east of
Comer; widening congested Mars Hill Road in
Oconee County; adding three new overpasses
to Ga. 316 in Barrow County (including four-
laning Patrick Mill Road to become the "West
Winder Bypass'); a new 1-85 interchange at
Ga. oO south of Gainesville; widening US 441
south of 1-20 to four lanes; plus many smaller
intersection, airport and road-widening
improvements in the region. In addition,
counties will divide 25 percent of the tax rev
enue to spend on whatever local projects they
choose.
In ACC, a new loop 10 interchange will
be built halfway between Tallassee Road and
Atlanta Highway to alleviate Atlanta Highway
congestion via Mitchell Bridge Road. A new
four-lane Jennings Mill Parkway would connect
Commerce Boulevardto Jennings Mill Road,
and create another new Loop interchange..*
Five-foot bicycle lanes would be added to
North Avenue (from Willow Street to Loop
10) and to Lexington Road (between Carmike
Cinemas and Gaines School Road).
The Prince Avenue bike lanes will run
from downtown to Loop 10. Bike lanes and
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sidewalks will also be added to a four-laned
Tallassee Road (from Mitchell Bridge Road
to Whitehead Road, with either a stoplight
or roundabout at Whitehfead). Daytime bus
service would be increased from hourly to
half-hourly on seven popular routes, and syn
chronized stoplights and airport improvements
would also be funded.
The Athens Area Chamber of Commerce sup
ports the tax; Oconee County Chairman Melvin
Davis has also come out in favor of it Two
ACC commissioners, Kinman and Ketly Girtz,
told Flagpole they support it. The project list
"reflects local priorities," Kinman said. 'Folks
at the state level are finally starting to agree
with Athens voters that transportation does
not just refer to the capacity for moving sin
gle-occupancy vehicles as quickly as possible."
One opponent is the state Sierra dub, long
an active supporter of public transit, which
opposes a<~ the regional projects lists as
focusing 'overwhelmingly on sprawl-inducing
road construction, with the percentage allot
ted to environmentally friendly projects (e.g.
transit and bicycle/pedestrian facilities) gen
erally in the low single digits."
But to Girtz, the tax 'is our best shot
to bring some public dollars to all of those
modes." Recent budget discussions about
cutting bus service wouldn't be necessary, he
said, if T-SPLOST passes.
BikeAthens also supports the tax, but
would like to have seen 'much more than 5
percent' of the money go to alternative trans
portation. "The benefits outweigh the short
comings," the group said, 'and will help to
push Athens and the surrounding communities
to become safer for cyclists, pedestrians, and
drivers more quickly than if TSPLOST doesn't
pass'
John Hule
MAY 30,20*2 • FLAGP0LE.COM 5