The transportation infrastructure in the entire 17-county Heart of Georgia Altamaha (HOGA) Region is in great shape and improving daily! Please pause for a moment to consider how the majority of our city and county airports, bridges, roads, and sidewalks projects have been built, maintained, improved, resurfaced, and widened over the last ten years.
The Transportation Investment Act (TIA) of 2010, known locally as the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST), has provided much needed funds to improve our transportation infrastructure. The 10-year 1% sales tax to fund local and regional transportation improvements was introduced to voters via referendum in 2012 and passed in three of Georgia’s 12 regions, River Valley, Central Savannah River Area, and our own Heart of Georgia Altamaha (HOGA) which includes Appling, Bleckley, Candler, Dodge, Emanuel, Evans, Jeff Davis, Johnson, Laurens, Montgomery, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Wayne, Wheeler, and Wilcox. It passed in the HOGA Region by a vote of 52%-48%. Since that time, the HOGA Region has successfully completed 601 projects with 141 more currently under construction. The current T-SPLOST has collected over $290 million in total revenue of an original budget of $366 million.
In addition to the TIA funds to support the aforementioned projects, 25% of all tax collected in our TIA Region was redistributed back to local governments (counties and incorporated cities) for use on any transportation-related projects they chose. The discretionary funds were distributed among the 17 HOGA counties using the Local Assistance Road Program (LARP) formula and allowed communities to tailor their contributions to local transportation needs. In some instances, discretionary funds were used to “match” state and federal funds, which is the portion a local government must pay for the project. The match is normally 30%, but counties and cities that passed TIA paid only 10%.
Under State law, T-SPLOST is a 10-year sales tax. Everyone participates via sales transactions, regardless of residency, so it is not a burden on a business owners or homeowners. Voters may renew the sales tax at the end of each decade. In HOGA, that opportunity will come for voters as a renewal ballot on May 24, 2022. County voting results will be combined to produce a regional total. If a majority of the votes cast in the Region’s election are in favor, then it is considered passed, and the sales tax will continue to be imposed in the entire Region, all 17 counties. In the HOGA Region, renewal of the T-SPLOST will ensure completion of an additional 580 projects with a total project value of over $235 million.
These projects are particularly critical for the entire HOGA Region because of its geographic location on the Interstate 16 corridor. Current supply chain challenges are projected to last well into 2022. The Georgia Port is projected to process 7.5 million containers this year, an increase of almost 2.5 million over last year. With 80+% of those containers going on a truck, this economic development will create even more wear and tear on infrastructure on the I-16 corridor between Savannah and Atlanta.
The TIA 2.0 Connecting Region 9 campaign seeks to inform voters about the history of T-SPLOST, the challenges the HOGA Region and the State of Georgia face, and the opportunity to vote on May 24, 2022. Without it, future transportation infrastructure projects will likely have to be paid for by the property taxpayers. So, please remember, this is not a new tax, but the continuation of a current tax. All funds collected in our region for TIA will be spent on transportation projects in our region. A penny goes a long way!
If you would like to learn more about TIA, in general, or past/future local projects, specifically, please visit http://www.ga-tia.com
