The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved an agreement with its 16 cities that paves the way for putting a new SPLOST program before voters in November.
County officials have previously expressed their intention to offer a new program focused primarily on transportation that would take effect when the current SPLOST program expires next year on March 31. The new program would end in March 2017 and would raise a maximum amount of $498 million.
One percent of the collected total would pay state administration costs while 78.9 percent of the remainder would go to the county and 21.1 percent to the cities. Each entity is required to use the bulk of its share for transportation projects, with the County agreeing to set aside $25 million for joint city/county projects.
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A citizens’ review committee would be set up to monitor all spending under the program, and a new citizen project selection committee will be organized to review and recommend all transportation projects. The agreement also requires annual audits of spending by each entity and of the SPLOST program as a whole. In addition, a SPLOST status report will also be published on city and county websites by the end of each year.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Charlotte Nash said, “I’m very pleased that we were all able to work together and reach agreement on how this potential funding would be used. We agreed that transportation infrastructure is our biggest need.”
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Source: Gwinnett County
A formal signing ceremony for the cities and Gwinnett County is set for Aug. 13. The entire agreement is online atwww.gwinnettcounty.com.
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