Commissioners Agree To SPLOST 2015 Spending Priorities

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners agreed after a five-hour meeting last night to a tentative list of spending priorities for the planned 2015 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

Whether the agreement will be sufficient to result in a vote to put the issue on the May 20 ballot only will be known at the regular BOC meeting tonight, which starts at 7 p.m. at the courthouse, and which includes further discussion of the tax referendum.

At the meeting last night, the Commissioners agreed to strike the $25 million request for a new courthouse from the SPLOST project list entirely, deciding instead to direct $2.7 million from unspent SPLOST 2004 funds to a security fix for the courthouse.

They gave Sheriff Scott Berry $5.2 million of the $5.5 million he requested, funded the full request of $12 million for transportation infrastructure, set aside $10 million for water and sewer projects, rather than the requested $13 million, and gave the parks and recreation programs $8.5 of the $10 million requested.

For more on the story, go to Oconee County Observations.