MOULTRIE, Ga. — A sales tax to benefit transportation has already raised roughly four-fifths of its expected revenue several months ahead of schedule. 

Local officials are hustling to present another tax proposal to voters so it can pick up where the current sales tax leaves off.

Colquitt County voters approved the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax in November of 2017. It added 1 cent per dollar to the county’s tax rate with the goal of raising $25.5 million by March 2023. The money would be split among the county government, the governments of each of the county’s municipalities, the Hospital Authority, the Airport Authority and the Recreation Authority to be used for transportation-related projects and purchases.

In January 2020, the Georgia Legislature passed a law that forced online retailers to charge sales tax to customers in Georgia as if they were stores in those customers’ home counties. Colquitt County’s sales tax receipts began to rise significantly. In just one example, the December 2020 TSPLOST revenue was $504,362, about $50,000 more than the revenue in December 2019; the county has no way to know how much of that increase was due to online sales taxes.

The windfalls have added up. As of Oct. 31, the tax had collected $19.4 million, Colquitt County Administrator Chas Cannon said.

“It’s about six months ahead of schedule,” Cannon said, “about six and a half months, to be specific.”

So what’s the problem?

The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, is a separate tax that operates a lot like the TSPLOST. Under the rules that govern SPLOST, the county is looking forward to receiving significantly more money than was projected when voters approved it in March 2017. 

But the TSPLOST rules don’t work that way. When the TSPLOST raises the planned amount, the tax ends. That would be approximately September or October 2022, Cannon estimated.

The Association County Commissioners of Georgia is working with the Georgia Legislature to rewrite the law, but Cannon said it won’t be done in time to affect the current TSPLOST. Several other counties approved TSPLOST referendums at the same time Colquitt County did, and they’re in the same boat, he said.

The situation is further complicated by election rules. Cannon said the new TSPLOST would need to take effect in the fourth quarter of 2022; otherwise, merchants would have to reset their computers and cash registers to remove the old tax in October then reset them again to add the new tax later. Having the new tax take effect in the fourth quarter would allow it to flow seamlessly from the one that’s ending to the one that’s beginning.

To make the new tax take effect then, voters will need to approve it in the May 24, 2022, election, Cannon said. Election rules require the county to call for the referendum 90 days before it’s held — that would be in mid-February. By that point, all participating entities must have identified what they’ll use the tax proceeds for and signed an intergovernmental agreement laying out how the money will be divided.

The county government sent letters Wednesday to all the entities that participated in the current TSPLOST inviting them to a meeting Nov. 30 to get the ball rolling.

What does the tax do?

Cannon said the county has used about $1 million per year of TSPLOST revenue for basic operations like mowing of right-of-ways, pipes, etc. The rest of the county’s share, about $1.5 million per year, has been combined with the state Department of Transportation’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant to resurface paved roads in the county, he said. Together, the two funding sources have paid for resurfacing 20-30 miles of roadway each year, maybe more, he said.

Road maintenance has traditionally come from the county’s general fund, which is supplied by property taxes. With TSPLOST in place, Cannon said, the county has been able to reduce property tax rates six of the last seven years.

“If we didn’t have it, we’d be in a bind, no doubt about it,” he said.

That was one of the arguments in favor of optional sales taxes, he said: They enable governments to reduce the tax burden on property owners. In addition to SPLOST and TSPLOST, Colquitt Countians also pay the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) and Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST), both of which benefit the Colquitt County Board of Education. Cannon said the Colquitt County BOE levies significantly lower property taxes than the school boards in other counties that don’t receive the LOST.

The Colquitt County Board of Commissioners has called a series of meetings with other local governments to discuss a renewal of the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

Meetings will be held at 5 p.m. in Room 201 of the Colquitt County Courthouse Annex on Nov. 30, Dec. 14, Jan. 11 and Jan. 25.

Completing negotiations by Jan. 25 will allow the Board of Commissioners to call for the referendum at its Feb. 1 meeting, and it will be on the ballot for the May 24 primary, according to a letter from the county to other stakeholders.