Albany, Dougherty County seem to be on track for transportation sales tax

ALBANY — This time around, a sales tax agreement between the city of Albany and Dougherty County should be handled smoothly and without the weeks of acrimonious back-and-forth that preceded a 2022 dispute over a separate penny sales tax.

At least that’s how the two governments seem to be approaching pending discussions on the issue of extending the transportation special-purpose local-option sales tax that is up for renewal this year.

“I think our agreement is a 67-33 (in favor of the city) split,” Albany City Manager Steven Carter told city commissioners during a Tuesday-morning work session. “(That’s) $59 million for the city. We’ve proposed a list of projects we think is the right allocation for the money.”

Follow-up discussion included several criticisms of projects that were included and some left out in the current T-SPLOST as well as the slow pace of bringing the approved projects to fruition.

Commissioner Chad Warbington said that only about 20% of projects have been completed.

“Why are we only at 20%?” he said. “Should we be talking more like 50% complete, 70% complete? Or is it OK to be 20% complete?”

The list provided by city staff for the next referendum later this year is a good starting point but probably will need additional discussion by the commission to come up with a final group of projects, Warbington said.

Commissioner Jon Howard suggested having a project manager oversee the projects to ensure they are completed in a timely manner. The commissioner also questioned the decision not to include several streets in east Albany that were not fully funded in the previous T-SPLOST referendum.

“I will not vote to approve it if we can’t get an itemized list of things that need to be paved,” Howard said. “I’m infuriated that we can’t get these two streets paved.”

The county commission briefly discussed the transportation sales tax on Monday but has not developed a specific list of projects.

In 2022, the two governments disagreed sharply over the division of funds raised through separate SPLOST and LOST (local-option sales tax) collections. The two sides engaged in a lengthy series of negotiations, with proposals and counter proposals, with the county at one point threatening to seek a referendum without an agreement.

On Monday, interim Assistant County Administrator Barry Brooks said that there is a list of priorities for the county’s estimated $30 million in potential proceeds, but no list of projects has been developed.

Those priorities include safety, preservation of infrastructure and maintenance of infrastructure, he said during an interview following the commission’s work session.

To place the T-SPLOST question on the ballot for the approval of voters, both governments must ratify the agreement laying out the division of proceeds and listing the projects for which the funds will be used.

For the T-SPLOST, there does not seem to be any appetite so far to dispute the 67-33 split.

Barring any changes, the question of extending the transportation sales tax for an additional five years could be on the ballot in the fall.

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