The two-year 1 percent Special Local Option Sales Tax being considered by Fayette County and the cities of Peachtree City, Fayetteville, Tyrone, Brooks, and Woolsey may not be THE perfect solution to cover the costs of repairing and maintaining our aging countywide road systems, but what are the alternatives?
We simply cannot ignore the problem and hope it will go away. We have to maintain our roads and aging infrastructure.
Like most unpopular political decisions, our previous group of elected officials simply kicked the can further down the road and now we have to deal with those delayed decisions.
I attended three stormwater evening meetings held by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners and heard the seemingly endless complaints many residents expressed about the stormwater bills they had recently received
The majority of the complaints were about bills averaging less than $40, but some property owners had received huge bills that made no sense whatsoever.
At the time, I thought, “So what are they complaining about?” Peachtree City and Fayetteville have been paying stormwater bills for a long time, and I had just received a six-month bill for $56 from PTC, which is about five times what it was last year. The amount of the bill isn’t a budget breaker, but the increase is troubling.
An argument that cannot seriously be debated is that we all use and rely on the roads in Fayette County. Thus, shouldn’t all of the Fayette County residents and anyone outside our county that use our road systems pay for their upkeep and repair? To me, that is a fair question.
If the voters approve the SPLOST initiative in November, each city and the county would receive a share of the estimated $41 million that would be raised. Based on population, the approximate breakdown of the $41 million would be: Fayette County $20 million, Peachtree City $12 million, Fayetteville $6 million, and the remaining $3 million would be shared by Tyrone, Brooks and Woolsey.
Mayor Haddix of PTC has gone on record as opposing the plan calling it double taxation, but he is missing the point, since it would be designated for cart path and road repairs and maintenance.
As expected, three members of the council voted against him. At the meeting this [past] week, Councilman Eric Imker pointed out that the plan would solve our cart path and road budget shortfalls for eight years and that is a no brainier.
Until someone comes up with a better plan, I will support what the commissioners have proposed.
Jim Richter
Peachtree City, Ga.
