TIFTON, Ga. — The Georgia Chamber of Commerce hosted an informational forum on TSPLOST Tuesday morning at the Tifton regional office.

A referendum to approve TSPLOST, which will implement a regional 1 percent sales tax over a 10-year period to fund transportation improvements, will be on the May 22 ballot.

A regional roundtable, which consisted of the county commission chair and one mayor from each of the 18 counties, was held in April 2017 to begin the process. The counties are Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien,  Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner and Ware.

Jay Roberts, director of planning for the Georgia Department of Transportation, spoke to the attendees, which included elected officials and business people from the Tift area and surrounding counties.

According to Roberts, there are 151 approved projects for the southern Georgia region, with around 23 of those located within Tift County. All money collected in the region must, by law, be spent in the region.

The total revenue projection is approximately $513 million, according to Roberts.

Counties match 10 percent of the funds for the approved projects, which is better then the usual 30 percent match, said Roberts.

He also said that 25 percent of the collected funds are given back to the counties and they can use it on whatever transportation projects they choose. That percentage is based off a formula that takes into account population and both paved and unpaved lane miles.

Some attendees brought up concerns about being a “donor county,” meaning that they would contribute more funds than other counties and wouldn’t receive as much benefit as other counties.

“It’s important to think regionally,” he said. “If Highway 82 was four lanes within the Tift County lines and then after that it was two lanes, what good would it do you? None. But because it’s four-lane all the way over to the coast, you now have the ability in Tift County to say we have four lane access to the port.”

Follow Eve Guevara on Twitter @EveGuevaraTTG.