DOT Commissioner Assures Local Leaders of Matching Funds for Roads
Funds will be available to match, 75 cents to the dollar, money Jasper County spends on roads from proceeds of a one percent special sales tax, state highway commissioner Harold Linnenkohl promised in Monticello Tuesday.
In something of a pep rally for the one percent special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, the state’s top transportation official debunked skeptics who have argued that the state matching funds would be available only if appropriated by the General Assembly.
“Our (the state Department of Transportation’s) budget is $2.2 billion,” said Mr. Linnenkohl. “Of that only about $11 million is appropriated by the General Assembly.”
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Voters will decide on Nov. 8 whether to replace an expiring SPLOST with a new one, continuing the county’s sales tax rate at 7 percent. The primary purpose of the previous levy was expansion and renovation of the Courthouse; much of the proposed new six-year levy would go road improvements.
The DOT promise of 75 cents in state road funds to match every dollar of local road expenditures has been touted by supporters as a major reason to support the SPLOST. Though a letter promising the matching funds said the state funds would depend on availability, Mr. Linnenkohl said the money would be available, primarily from state and federal gasoline and sales taxes that fund the bulk of the DOT budget.
The commissioner encountered some skepticism in what was billed as a press conference on the courthouse porch. A spectator who said he just happened to be passing by said it seemed that all road improvements went into new developments.
Mr. Linnenkohl said the state and local officials would work to see that road improvements would be considered on sound criteria. County commissioner Jack Bernard noted that financing would be sufficient improve some 160 miles of roads-“enough to fix the roads in all parts of the county.”
In answer to questions about the long awaited Perimeter Road extension, Mr. Linnenkohl reviewed developments over the past dozen or so years since the project grew from a local project to a state project and eventually wound up being federally financed, with each change in status producing delays.
He said he anticipated right-of-way acquisition beginning next year with construction being moved up from previously scheduled date in 2012 to possibly as soon as 2008.
That schedule did not depend on the local option sales tax, he indicated, since funds for the project already have been allocated. The SPLOST funds might be used toward relatively minor local contributions. On other projects, he said state funds could be used toward projects that meet DOT criteria, freeing local road funds from projects that do not.
After the gathering at the courthouse the group, a virtual who’s who of local leaders, attended a luncheon at the City Complex. Besides Mr. Bernard the county commission was represented by commissioner Carl Pennamon and interim county manager Leonard Myers.
Mayor Susan Holmes, mayor pro tem Otis Clark, councilman Glen Newsome and city manager Hugh King headed the Monticello delegation and mayor Jim Striplin represented Shady Dale.
The group of more that two dozen included members of the SPLOST Steering Committee, Jerry Williams, chairman; representatives of the Economic Development Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Board of Education, Hospital authority and other agencies.
David Dyer, publicity chairman for the committee, presented Mr. Linnenkohl with Jasper tree ornament as a memento of his visit.
