Fayette

voters' rejection of an extra penny of sale tax to pay

for new schools last week did not escape the notice of

the county commissioners, who are looking for ways to

fund a new jail and court complex.

"There

may be enough antitax bias out there that you can't float

anything," said Commissioner Greg Dunn, who has been

actively involved in planning for the complex, which is

expected to cost more than $60 million.

"But

we're going to have to proceed," he added.

Commissioners

have numerous options as they begin talking about funding

for the project next month, including asking the voters

to approve a special purpose local option sales tax, as

the Board of Education did.

But failure

to win voter approval of either a SPLOST or a general

obligation bond, another option that requires a

referendum, could be disastrous, said Dunn.

"The

dilemma we're in is that if the public says `no' to a

bond or a SPLOST, we can't do anything for a couple of

years, and we don't have that kind of time. The feds will

be upon us."

Fayette's

jail is currently holding more than double its capacity

on many days, and eventually a federal judge could order

that the county build a new jail, and that order probably

would include specific instructions that the county must

carry out, no matter how expensive, experts say. It has

happened in other Georgia counties, commissioners say.

The county

has assembled about 65 acres between Lee Street and

Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard, including the current jail

site, and consultants have drawn preliminary site plans

for the complex.

Dunn said

he hopes within the next month or two the commission can

come up with a funding plan and hire an architect.

Board

members haven't gotten down to brass tacks on the funding

discussion yet, saying they didn't want publicity on

their discussions to interfere with the school board's

SPLOST vote.

In addition

to a sales tax or a general obligation bond,

commissioners have other options the school board did not

have, including impact fees (charged to developers to pay

for the impact new developments have on county services),

certificates of participation (COPS - a mechanism

whereby the county could borrow the money through the

state at a low interest rate), and revenue bonds (bonds

guaranteed by the county's property taxes).

The last

three options don't require a public vote, which can be

seen as a positive or a negative, said commission

Chairman Harold Bost.

"Whatever

we do, there are going to be those who call us idiots and

those who say we're doing the right thing," he said.

For his

part, Bost said, "It's going to take an awful lot of

figuring" for him to decide which way to go. The

key, he said, is weighing the short-term and long-term

impact on Fayette families.

A sales tax

will pay for the project more quickly, and about 30

percent of the revenue will come from nonresidents who

shop at Fayette businesses, he said. Bonds will spread

the cost over decades, allowing newcomers years from now

to pay a share and tapping local businesses and

industries as well, he added.

Commissioner

Herb Frady has argued for a SPLOST ever since the board

first started discussing plans for a new jail, and he

said last week's school board vote hasn't changed his

mind.

"I

think if we give the people a clear enough objective,

they would vote for it," he said. "I think they

understand we've got to build this jail."

Frady said

a long-term bond is expected to cost a local family of

three only $89 a year, whereas a sales tax would cost

$312 a year, even with 30 percent of the cost paid by

outsiders. But the SPLOST would continue for only five

years, costing each family about $1,560, whereas payback

of the bond would take 30 years and cost about $2,670 per

family.

"Personally

I'd rather go ahead and pay it off as soon as

possible," he said.

"We

have differences of opinion on the board about how we

should fund this thing," said Dunn. "But the

taxpayers are going to pay for the jail either through a

millage rate [property tax] increase or through the

SPLOST."

In the end,

he added, none of the options may appeal to the voters.

"I'm fully prepared that this might be politically

unpopular," he said. "We were elected to make

some tough choices, and we have to do it."

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