An opinion by Charlie Paris:Recently a news source other than FYN ran an anonymous comment that SPLOST would be used for bridges, roads, sidewalks and bicycle paths – and not for the debt as had been stated. Obviously, there is much confusion, and I can understand why; so let’s look at the rest of the story.

Splost revenue will be shared by the County, the City of Ellijay, and the City of East Ellijay. The vast majority of the money, approximately 93 percent of it, will go to the count. Ellijay and East Ellijay will split the remaining 7 percent, although not equally.

Keep in mind that Ellijay and East Ellijay are not on the hook for the debt payment, only Gilmer County is. For that reason, these two cities can use their portion of the SPLOST revenue for specific projects, including roads, bridges, sidewalks, bicycle paths, recreation and other items. The thing to remember is that this is only for the cities’ portion of the money, not for the approximately 93 percent of it that will go to Gilmer County.

Gilmer County has the same wish list of projects built into the SPLOST resolution but for the County, there is a special stipulation that no money may be used on any of these projects until the debt service has been fully funded.

Here’s the bottom line. The cities are not responsible for the County’s crippling debt, and they are free to use their portion of the SPLOST proceeds on any of the approved projects as they see fit. However, for both cities combined, we are talking about approximately 7 percent of the proceeds.

The County, on the other hand, is responsible for the debt, and must use all of its portion of the SPLOST proceeds for only the debt payment – until enough has been collected each year to fund that year’s payment. If more is collected, then the extra may be used for the other projects. If less is collected, then all of it must go to the debt payment.

Because the Cities are not responsible for the debt payment, the special language requiring all proceeds to be used for the debt does not apply to their portion of the proceeds. That money, approximately 7 percent between the two, will go directly to the cities – and the Mayor and City Council will administer it. Our County Commissioners will have nothing to do with that.

So if you’ve heard that the money will be spent on roads/bridges/etc and not on the debt, you will now know that this only applies to the Cities small portion of the total proceeds. The roughly 93 percent that the county will get must go to the debt payment.

I hope this clears up some confusion regarding the SPLOST resolution that we will be voting on, and I hope that you will now feel that a “Yes” vote will be best for all of us – whether we live in the unincorporated County or in one of the Cities.