The SPLOST item on the Peachtree City council agenda this Thursday, Oct. 20, is extremely important.
A letter to the editor was published back on July 26, 2016 describing this coming agenda item. At the time a SPLOST vote was anticipated to be on the ballot this November. The vote is now being considered for March 2017.
The July 26 letter pointed out $8 million is being added to the mix because Peachtree City’s share of the revenue is expected to be $45.5 million for a six-year SPLOST instead of $37.5 million for a five-year SPLOST.
I still recommend this extra $8 million be dedicated to roads and cart paths, i.e., 75 percent ($6 million) to roads and 25 percent ($2 million) to cart paths.
Here’s the “tweak” to that letter from July. An additional $2.5 million from the [proposed] Arts Center is now available. PTC city council had allocated this $2.5 million even though they had only marginal information about this project.
The arts project wasn’t properly vetted, there wasn’t full disclosure, and there was no true analysis to determine if the financials made sense. Yet council approved $2.5 million of our tax dollars to this project. Unbelievable!
Fortunately, the county commission saw the lack of data and flaws and removed it from the SPLOST.
Recommend $1 million of that $2.5 million be added to Capital Purchases for a future fire engine 10-plus years from now. $1 million is already there for one fire engine in the next 4-6 years but a second one will be needed as old engines are retired in the future.
The development of the west side along MacDuff Parkway will eventually include a new fire station. Let’s get in front of the funding curve using SPLOST since “impact fees” will be nowhere near close to paying for that station’s hardware requirements.
This will avoid a future debt of $1 million and prevent needless principle and interest from being paid out of our general fund.
The remaining $1.5 million of the $2.5 million from the Arts Center should also be dedicated to roads and cart paths.
This is the kind of pragmatic thinking needed on city council. I just hope they don’t splurge on “want-a-haves” and stick to “got-a-haves.”
Eric Imker
Candidate for Mayor
Peachtree City, Ga.
