Tuesday, Nov. 19, in the 8:30 a.m. Bulloch County Board of Commissioners meeting and 5:30 p.m. Statesboro City Council meeting, elected officials were set to act on an intergovernmental agreement for a proposed sales tax renewal predicted to collect $138 million over six years.

But for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, to continue for those six more years beginning next Oct. 1, a majority of Bulloch County voters will have to approve, and the referendum is slated for a March 18 special election.

Under the proposed agreement, the two top-priority funding items are $51 million for an addition to the Bulloch County Jail and $9.6 million for “joint solid waste projects” of the county and Statesboro, including purchasing more space in a regional, commercial landfill in another county that accepts their household waste.

This is the first time the plan is being put to quorums of the elected boards. But Bulloch County and Statesboro city staff members, including the staff attorneys, and a couple of the commissioners, Statesboro’s mayor or mayor pro tem and individual representatives of the other towns met several times to negotiate, Commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson said Monday.

Now the proposal is moving forward during a time of transition, as Thompson will be replaced by Chairman-elect David Bennett at the beginning of 2025. Two of the district commissioners also lost their seats to challengers this election season, so it’s no coincidence that longtime County Manager Tom Couch has resigned, effective at the end of next week.

“The (referendum) election is in March, so the new commissioners and the old commissioners that remain will be pushing for it,” Thompson said. “And I’ve always been a believer in the SPLOST because really and truly, the county just needs the money and probably one of the simplest ways to get it is through sales tax.”

Shared top priorities

The proposed jail addition is in one sense a county project, because the county owns and operates the jail, but it also houses inmates and suspects detained from Statesboro and the other three towns. In contrast, providing landfill space for solid waste is technically a city of Statesboro responsibility, since the city owns both the local inert waste landfill and the household waste transfer station. But the county also hauls waste to the transfer station, from which it is trucked to the regional landfill, under the county and city’s longstanding Service Delivery Strategy agreement.

So the jail addition and extension of solid waste capacity are labeled “joint and priority projects,” for shares of SPLOST revenue totaling $60.6 million.  Under the agreement, after that amount is collected, the remainder – estimated as $77.4 million more based on current sales tax revenue – would be divided among the county government and the four municipal governments based on their shares of Bulloch’s population.

Jail addition

A major addition of jail beds has been discussed in various forms for more than a decade. One version of the plan, made public in early 2023, would add a wing to the jail and also replace older portions of Bulloch County Correctional Institute, a county-owned prison that holds state inmates, and possibly add capacity for transitional inmates soon to be released. That concept was put forward by Sheriff Noel Brown and his staff and by Randy Tillman, who was then the BCCI warden and is now the county public safety director, reporting to the county manager.

“The top priority is the jail because, even if it was approved today, probably with all of the design work and plans and everything, you’re looking at it not being completed for two or three years, and the sheriff has said he’s, as always, running out of room, and as we grow, that’s one of the major things we face,” Thompson said.

Population percentages

After those shared projects, the county government’s portion of the revenue would be about 55.7% of the projected additional $77.4 million, or $43.1 million, based on the population of the county unincorporated area. Statesboro’s city share would be 41.2% of the total, or $31.9 million, based on the city’s population.

The city of Brooklet’s share would be 2.1%, or $1.625 million. The city of Portal’s share would be 0.79%, or $611,460; the town of Register’s share, 0.19%, or $147,060. A list in the proposed agreement gives a further breakdown of project types for each local government.

Other than the $51 million for the shared jail addition, the largest single line item in the agreement is $27.7 million earmarked to the county for further “public safety facilities and/or equipment.” The third largest item is the city of Statesboro’s almost $12.8 million earmark, also for “public safety facilities and/or equipment.”

Public safety

The county has been expanding its Fire Department to include more staffed stations and trucks and other apparatus. Although SPLOST isn’t for salaries, the BCFD has been hiring more full-time firefighters in what is now a mixed career and volunteer service. Meanwhile, the all-career Statesboro Fire Department, which serves a five-mile radius of its two existing stations into the county unincorporated area in addition to Statesboro, has also added personnel, and city officials have long discussed building a third station.

“That’s also talking about equipment – you know, police cars, fire trucks and all that good stuff – but it may include the fire station as well because we’re actually trying to site Station 3, and we certainly hope to get it under construction in the next year,” Statesboro City Manager Charles Penny said Monday. “I hope to get in built within the next year.”

Other funding categories in the city’s list include water and sewer projects, natural gas system projects, administrative facilities (which could include a new roof and HVAC system for City Hall), cultural facilities, “parks, trails and greenspaces,” the city cemetery and public works, stormwater projects, public parking lots and economic development projects.

“Because there is going to have to be a referendum, I just think it’s really important for our citizens to know that without SPLOST, our equipment would not be good, and in order to do the things that we’re able to do, it would require much higher (property) taxes,” Penny said.

Brooklet, Portal & Register

Brooklet’s SPLOST funding earmarks include $863,160 for water and sewer projects, $259,500 for other public works capital outlay and $502,740 for vehicle and equipment purchases.

Water and sewer projects also top Portal’s list, and improving water mains will take up the largest portion of Register’s limited funds, although the town also has included a relatively substantial earmark for improvements to its community center.

The long-established SPLOST is one of four local 1% taxes that, together with the state’s 4% tax, make for sales taxes totaling 8% on nonexempt items in Bulloch County.

The others are the original Local Option Sales Tax, or LOST, which in Bulloch County is dedicated to operating costs of the county schools, with an offsetting rollback of property tax millage; the Education SPLOST, or E-SPLOST, for school district construction projects and capital purchases such as of buses, books, technology and security equipment; and the Transportation SPLOST, or T-SPLOST, for street and road projects, airport improvements, public transit and equipment purchases.

All but the LOST, which is permanent, expire after a period of years unless renewed in a referendum.