Communities in Georgia that rejected raising the sales tax to pay for transportation projects could face higher costs when it comes time to resurface or repair local roads.
State lawmakers voted in 2010 to authorize the referendum and backed a provision enticing voters into approving it. Under that provision, regional districts that approved the tax increase must use their own funds to pay for 10 percent of any projects covered by the state-run Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant fund, a $110 million program that helps county governments repave or overhaul local roads. However, regions that rejected the sales tax increase must pay 30 percent of the cost when using the program, a provision that critics decry as a penalty.
The situation creates a dilemma for policymakers, some of whom have promised it will be repealed. Enforcing the so-called penalty could prove risky because raising the sales tax was unpopular with so many voters.
Under the plan, Georgia was divided into a dozen zones whose voters decided separately whether to raise the sales tax in their own districts. It passed in three districts sitting in an arc bending from Augusta in the east to Columbus in the west. In places where it passed, the referendum never got more than 54 percent of the vote.
Fayette County Commissioner Steve Brown said he wants lawmakers to remove the penalty when they gather for their annual legislative session in January. Brown said his county is so financially strapped that it laid off employees so it could afford bulletproof vests for sheriff’s deputies.