County Chairman JC Sanford says taxpayers may see an increase if citizens vote against the next round of SPLOST (Special Option Sales Tax).Sanford issued the warning during Monday’s meeting to discuss the November referendum.

“If it (the 2014 SPLOST) doesn’t pass,”

he said

“then all of that bond payment will come back to the tax payers and that affects everyone in the county.”

He called the tax vital. During a called meeting between the Gilmer Board of Commissioners and East Ellijay and Ellijay officials Monday afternoon, Sanford emphasized the importance of citizens voting to renew the tax in November.

“As it stands now,”

he said,

“it would take all the money that SPLOST is taking in to come close to making our bond payment. Right now we’re coming up about a million, slightly over million short on our bond payment with all our SPLOST taxes (sic) we take in.”

Sanford went on to explain the county currently receives approximately $3 million in SPLOST revenue, while the bond payment is between $4.1 and $4.2 million. Revenue from the sales tax depends solely on the health of the economy, meaning if the economy is on an upswing and consumers are spending more, the county and cities yield higher revenues than in economic downturns. Sanford said in 2006 and 2007 the economy and SPLOST revenues were well enough for the county pay in full its annual bond payments. Since 2008, however, he said economy and revenue have worsened incrementally form year to year. Post Two Commissioner Danny Hall also stressed the importance of passing the tax.

“If we vote against it,”

Hall said,

“we vote against ourselves, because we’ll have more taxes.”

East Ellijay Mayor Mac West was also concerned about renewing the tax.

“I’m not going to take a neutral stance,”

he said,

“It’s either-or, the way I look it.”

Here, West was concerned with funds to maintain main roads. He explained his city currently receives between $100,000 and $110,000 in SPLOST funds, which he said are used to maintain the major roads in East Ellijay. West said the city doesn’t have anymore money available in the budget for roads.

“If we get cut much more than that (the current amount)…that’ll put us down around $66,000 and we’re going to be hard-pressed to maintain roads, the major arteries that 90 percent of Gilmer County travels on at least once a day.”

He said the city recently completed paving a half mile on First Ave, which cost $58,000.

The three entities intend to sign an intergovernmental agreement for the 2014 SPLOST. The agreement will establish the percentage of tax revenue each entity will receive if the referendum is passed, but also allows them to collect revenues beyond the projected amount of $22 million over the six year period. The previous SPLOST projection was $35 million.

According to the discussion at Monday’s meeting, the money from the tax can be used for roads, streets and bridges. Ellijay Mayor Al Hoyle recommended adding recreation to the list. Ellijay is currently embroiled in a lawsuit over the Harrison Park project. The city is suing CBS contracting for incomplete work on Harrison Park and fraud. The city is suing for an amount between $35,000 and $75,000. Hoyle’s recommendation of adding recreation to the list of projects allowable by SPLOST funds would cover the cost of the park should the city lose the case or otherwise fail to recoup the lost funding.

The county and cities plan to approve their respective portions of the agreement by July in order to get the referendum on the November ballot. County Attorney David Clark warned, though, if they miss the window to approve the agreement for this year’s election, it could be another 12 months before the referendum could be resubmitted to voters, saying they could miss nine months of collections, which could possibly further burden taxpayers. The chairman and mayors confirmed that approval of the agreement would not be a problem.