County aims to put transportation tax on ballot

ALACHUA COUNTY – Inspired by the actions a county in South Carolina took in the late 1990s, Alachua County is looking to put an initiative on the ballot in November which would give communities a way to fund their priority road-improvement and transportation projects.

The idea is for each community to make a list ranking the priority of various transportation projects and submit it to the county. The highest priority project would have to be completed before the next one could be tackled. It is based on a similar course of action taken by York County, S.C. in the 1990s.

The last action the Alachua County Commission took was to decide on a length of term for the one-cent sales tax that would pay for the projects. At a Feb. 18 meeting between the county and the Alachua League of Cities, the County Commission decided the sales tax would last for eight years, said Mark Sexton, county spokesman.

By adopting an eight year term for the tax, the county can gain the citizens’ trust, said High Springs Vice-Mayor Sue Weller.

“The citizens don't trust the County Commission,” she said. The eight-year term for the tax will give the county a chance to show it will stick to the projects the cities want done. Distrust of the county was a major theme when the issue was discussed at a Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce meeting in September of last year. Citizens were skeptical the county would stick to the list.

The initiative could give smaller communities a bigger voice in determining which roadway improvements are pursued, said Kamal Latham, vice president of public policy for the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce in an interview with Alachua County Today last September.

“We need to find a way to get money to repair our roads,” Vice-Mayor Weller said. “I think the small cities recognize that there is an issue.”

Every city would have to submit the list of road projects, and the money would have to be used on the list items that were approved, she said. High Springs, for instance, would get about $900,000 each year to pave roads.

Under the proposal, Alachua County would get 43 percent of the money from the sales tax, the City of Gainesville would get 43 percent, and the rest of the money would be divided up among the smaller cities. Alachua would get 3.74 percent, Newberry would get 3.67 percent and High Springs would get 3.31 percent, for example, said Jeff Hayes, from the Alachua County Department of Growth Management.

There will be another meeting on March 18, where the county staff will present the county's project list. They will also send out directions to municipalities to prepare their lists.

In order for the transportation tax initiative to come to fruition, two things need to happen, Hayes said. First, the cities need to present finalized project lists, and second, the county would have to approve the ordinance to put the initiative on the ballot as a referendum for the November election.

“It has to go to voters for the final decision,” Hayes said. The County Commission is looking to pass the ordinance to put it on the ballot sometime in the summer, he said.

Most of the cities have turned in preliminary lists, Hayes said. The county is hoping to finish up the process and get the finalized lists and the ordinance passed within the next two months, he said.

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