Writer: Taylor Cooper
Published February 27, 2021
The Brunswick News
Opponents of the proposed Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax 2021 called into question several aspects of the initiative and Glynn County’s ability to effectively manage completed SPLOST projects at a town hall meeting earlier this week.
Glynn County commissioners propose implementing a 1 percent sales tax for three years, which would generate a total of $68.5 million to be split among the county, city of Brunswick, Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission and Jekyll Island Authority for infrastructure and capital projects. The registered electorate has the final say, however.
A number of residents questioned statements made by officials. Brunswick resident Jeff Kilgore disputes the claim by county commissioners that visitors to the Golden Isles pay around half of local sales taxes.
County officials point to a two-page report from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, which based the calculation on a “pull factor” used to determine the percentage of taxable transactions that can be attributed to non-residents in a given county. Based on the pull factor, the institute estimated non-residents pay as much as 55.6 to 59.5 percent of the local sales tax.
Part of the calculation is based on the income of residents in a given county. Kilgore believes this, among other things, would completely throw off the calculations as Glynn County has a sizable retired population which lives off passive income or savings.
Also at issue is the method for selecting projects and managing them. When assembling SPLOST 2016 and SPLOST 2021 projects, citizens were given the chance to give input, but local governments had, by and large, decided what infrastructure projects and capital expenses would be considered for funding.
George Ragsdale, president of Citizens for St. Simons Island and Sea Island, asked at the town hall why that should be, and why citizens should not be given more voice earlier in the decision-making process.
Glynn County Commission Chairman Wayne Neal said the county bases its decisions on a lot of internal knowledge and research.
“Are you going to have a town hall of 87,000 people? If you’re from District 1, you want District 1 projects. If you’re from District 3, you want District 3 projects,” Neal said. “... We went over the list with the public numerous times and asked for feedback. Some things got adjusted a little bit from the feedback. I think we’ve read that list in county commission meetings four times. That was the outreach to the community, and we listened to the stakeholders in the business community. We think we did listen.”
Ragsdale and Kilgore also questioned how the county could possibly be accurate in its project cost estimates when no preliminary design work has been done on most on the list.
The outcome of handling SPLOST in that manner can be seen most prominently in the Glynn County Veterans Memorial Park, the county’s new animal control shelter and multiple roundabout projects on St. Simons Island, all of which came in several hundred to millions of dollars over budget. The county got more revenue from SPLOST 2016 than expected, which will cover much of the additional costs, but the fact remains that the projects were well over budget.
Commissioners hope to address that point in SPLOST 2021, at least partially. Two of the biggest projects for which the county wants to use special sales tax revenue are an expansion of the Glynn County Courthouse and an overhaul of the St. Simons Island gateway.
Rather than making an estimate based on partial plans, SPLOST 2021 only includes the expenses related to preliminary engineering and design work up to the point where a contractor can make an informed decision based on the final construction plans. Using SPLOST money to pay for preliminary work legally obligates the county to complete both projects, but commissioners have said that having final plans in hand will help even if the county has to pay out of pocket by minimizing waste.
Those are the only two projects on the current list for which preliminary work would be done before inclusion in SPLOST.
Other major infrastructure initiatives — including complete reworks of the intersections at Frederica Road and Sea Island Road on St. Simons Island and Glynco Parkway and Canal Road on the mainland — won’t undergo preliminary design work. Improvements to the two intersections are very urgent, Neal said, which is why the county doesn’t want to wait for designs and another SPLOST before beginning.
“We recognize we’ve got two approaches. The top two on the list we’re pushing through with because we felt they’re more immediate,” Neal said.
Commissioners have talked about funding preliminary work from the county’s reserves before putting them on a SPLOST list but have not moved to do so.
Some opponents also pointed to the lax nature of SPLOST law, which allows local government to give vague descriptions of projects on the ballot. The ballot question is all that matters. Any project lists released separately from the ballot are not legally binding. An example of the problem, Kilgore noted at the town hall and at multiple commission meetings in the past, are the pickleball courts at Kings Park on St. Simons Island.
The commission elected to use $150,000 from SPLOST V revenue — collected over a decade ago and designated for District 2 recreation — to install the courts. No one in 2006, when SPLOST V was on the ballot, likely knew what pickleball was or imagined the county using SPLOST funds for courts.
So how can citizens trust the commission will use SPLOST 2021 funds for the projects on the projects list, Kilgore asked?
While Neal did not recall personally supporting the pickleball court proposal, he did not find Kilgore’s question convincing. It’s not unusual for major projects to take years to complete, and conditions and needs change over time.
“To take an extreme example of that, we wouldn’t go in the business of building a hitching post for horses when we know the country’s moving to cars,” Neal said. “(The $150,000 was collected) almost 15 years ago. It was for recreation.”
On that point, the question was also raised whether the county can be relied on to stick to the project at all, or if some projects might go back before the voters to be declared infeasible like the proposed Oglethorpe Conference Center, which is also on the SPLOST 2021 ballot.
Some projects are widely agreed upon as necessary, Neal said. He included the courthouse expansion and St. Simons Island Gateway projects in that category.
“When I’m off the commission, you don’t know what a future commission’s vision may be,” Neal said. “I can’t say categorically they’re going to do it and do it like we said. As much as feasibly possible, it is our intent to see it through.”
Commissioners have said at past meetings they want to be entirely transparent and accountable with SPLOST 2021. A similar sentiment was expressed by the commission that passed SPLOST 2016, though five of the seven members have since opted not to run for re-election or lost their campaigns.
Ragsdale noted the commission’s poor relationship with the SPLOST 2016 Citizens Oversight Committee. Some members of the old commission believed committee members were set against SPLOST and tensions occasionally flared up on both sides, culminating in the county commission officially reprimanding the committee for what it saw as overstepping its mandate.
Neal acknowledged the commission’s rocky relationship with the committee but said it will stick around for SPLOST 2021 in a different format.
“We are working to include them more,” Neal said.
Rather than seven private citizens appointed by commissioners and one by city commissioners, Neal said he strongly believes the oversight committee should include four citizens along with liaisons from the county commission, city commission, Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce and Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission.
Having direct contact between the oversight committee and government organizations, he said, will give the committee more influence.
“We think that will give us more accountability,” Neal said.
Ragsdale also had concerns about the various traffic and population growth studies the county uses to set SPLOST spending. The county’s comprehensive plan, St. Simons Island traffic study and impact fee study and studies associated with the county’s ongoing zoning update make different recommendations, giving varying projections of population growth that result in different long-term outcomes.
County Community Development Director Pamela Thompson, in a memo to the commission late last year, explained that in some cases the reports use different data applied in different ways and for different purposes.
All data comes from “a few trusted sources.” Those sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey and the Georgia Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, she said.
Early voting in the SPLOST 2021 referendum began this week. On the ballot are the referendum and a resolution to declare the Oglethorpe Conference Center SPLOST IV and V project infeasible and to reallocate the $2.5 million remaining to reduce property taxes.
Voters will be able to cast their ballots from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, until March 12 at three locations: the Office Park Building at 1815 Gloucester St. in Brunswick; the Ballard Community Building at 30 Nimitz Drive; and on St. Simons Island at Glynn County Fire Station No. 2, 1929 Demere Road.
All polling precincts will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on March 16.
Voters can check their registration status or find their polling place by visiting glynncounty.org/elections. Absentee ballot requests can be submitted via ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov or the Glynn County Board of Elections office, 1815 Gloucester St. in Brunswick. The elections office can be reached at 912-554-7060.
