County To Cash in CD
Three separate county commissions have had access to the funds remaining from the jail SPLOST, and they have remained intact, earning interest, and serving as a cushion for the county.
Now, the present County Commission has agreed to cash in the Certificate of Deposit (CD) when it matures in December and put the money in the general fund to offset funds transferred from the General Fund last week to pay off the Courthouse SPLOST.
A Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, as the name implies, is a sales tax passed for one or more specific purposes. The revenues from the SPLOST passed in 1992 to build a new county jail, and several other projects, was under-projected, so when the projects were complete, an additional $200,000+ was left. That county commission put the money in a CD, which has since been used as a cushion for the county, which seems to always face budget shortfalls.
Commissioners determined last year that the SPLOST funds being collected for the Courthouse project, for which bonds had been sold, would fall short of the money borrowed for the project. Basically, on that SPLOST, anticipated revenues were over projected. The economy took a downturn during the life of the SPLOST, and not as much sales tax was collected as anticipated.
Last week, the final payment was due on the project. Commissioners Monday transferred $277,185 from the contingency fund to pay off the SPLOST.
When they approved the budget amendments, Commissioner Carl Pennamon said he thought that transfer should be offset by the CD from the previous SPLOST. All commissioners were in agreement. The CD was purchased in December, 1999. As of last week, its value was $254,260. It will be cashed in this December, and that money will be put in contingency, presumably, where the funds were taken from last week.
Another budget amendment will serve to, in effect, write off some $2 million in losses at the landfill.
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The new SPLOST, for which funds began being collected April 1, will fund road improvements. The county did not sell bonds to finance the work. Instead, the county will spend the money as it comes in, thereby theoretically preventing a shortfall or a surplus. Projects will be done as the money is available to finance them.
Commissioners approved four roads to be included as a post-Level II project for SPLOST, meaning once the 10 roads committed to by SPLOST agreements have been paved, and the Hwy. 11 project has been completed, and possibly funds spent on Hwy. 380, if there are still funds, these would be the next priorities.
It includes Davidson Road and Jeffries Road in District 2. Somehow when the original proposal for SPLOST was agreed upon, there were no roads from District 2 included. Commissioner Charles Hill who represents that district said he told interim County Manager Leonard Myers about the oversight, and Mr. Hill did not realize the promotion of the SPLOST and documents associated with SPLOST included no roads for District 2.
Apparently two of the roads were previously in District 2, but when district lines were moved some time ago, those roads ceased to be in Mr. Hill’s district.
The resolution approved Monday specifies that these projects would not take place until after the initial $1.2 million has been spent on higher priorities…those outlined in the SPLOST brochure. The roads scheduled for improvement have been a bone of contention for Mr. Hill all this year, since SPLOST was passed last November and the oversight was realized afterwards.
The other two roads included in the resolution are County Line Road and Jackson Lake Road. The state has already appropriated funds for County Line Road, but the county did not have its matching funds.
Commissioner Carl Pennamon said he could not support the resolution, because he wasn’t consulted about the proposal. He said he’d like to see Freedonia Church Road added to the list.
