The Athens-Clarke County Commission split along familiar lines in approving Commissioner Mike Hamby’s budget proposal that, in a novel juggling act, uses accumulated interest from sales tax collections to pay for a small property tax cut and a number of requested items, such as raises for sheriff’s deputies.
Commissioner Carol Myers had proposed a budget that included a much smaller amount of SPLOST and TSPLOST interest—Hamby’s budget included $6.7 million and Myers’ $1.5 million—and no tax cut. Otherwise the two budgets were similar: Both included funding for the sheriff’s office, police staffing for a new real-time crime center, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, health insurance for library employees and $1 million for an affordable housing trust fund established last year, among other requests Mayor Kelly Girtz left out of his initial bare-bones $202 million budget proposal. Hamby’s budget cuts the property tax rate by 0.2 mills—about $20 for the average homeowner.
The Athens-Clarke County Democratic Committee had urged Democrats to speak in favor of the Myers budget. Platform chair Dylan Woolsey called using sales tax to fund a property tax cut “a wealth transfer” from low-income taxpayers and renters to “those with more assets.”
Teresa Friedlander raised concerns that using interest to plug holes in the general fund would impact the county’s ability to complete transportation projects that go over budget. “Large TSPLOST projects take years to move from funding to conclusion, for reasons including lack of personnel at all levels of management, right of way acquisition, utility relocation and politics,” she said. “Meanwhile, inflation eats away at the TSPLOST funds collected for specific projects. At the same time, interest accumulates in the accounts, which partially offsets the loss to inflation.”
Sarah Gehring, a planning commissioner and member of the 2023 TSPLOST advisory committee, said Hamby’s move would discourage people from voting to extend the 1% tax. She also questioned why he earmarked funds for specific neighborhoods—Fairview Street, Saxon Woods, Stonehenge, Homewood Hills and Kingswood, all of which are within the districts of commissioners who voted for the Hamby budget. Generally, the ACC Transportation and Public Works Department uses an objective formula to decide which streets most need paving or traffic-calming measures; such decisions are usually not political.
“Taking the money in this way—especially for specific streets that have not been subject to any public discussion—I fear will erode trust in the TSPLOST process,” Gehring said.
Projects that are not complete and could be left unfinished, Myers said, include multiuse paths on Cherokee Road, Riverbend Road, Jefferson River Road, Barber Street, Lexington Road, Atlanta Highway, Timothy Road, Mitchell Bridge Road, and in the Stonehenge and Westchester neighborhoods, as well as a West Broad Street roundabout and projects in East and North Athens like bus shelters and additional streetlights.
“I am extremely disturbed with the idea of robbing the coffers of TSPLOST to pay for what seem to be political favors,” Commissioner Melissa Link said.
But Commissioner Dexter Fisher said he wants to steer SPLOST funds toward Black communities and criticized the county for waiting too long to complete projects, although the commission itself has often been the holdup; TSPLOST 2023 already prioritizes historically underserved areas, and Homewood Hills and Kingswood are majority white. Commissioner Ovita Thornton criticized bike lane projects, particularly in Rocksprings, where she does not believe anyone rides bikes. Commissioner Stephanie Johnson said Stonehenge—which has its own $4.7 million pot of money in TSPLOST 2023—has been waiting too long for permanent traffic calming.
Hamby said $15 million in unallocated interest would still be available, and that TSPLOST 2026 could make up any gaps. “This is a really good budget,” he said. “It’s one of the better budgets we’ve had in a really long time, because it gets everything. I listened to what everybody wanted.”
Although it’s never been done before, Hamby’s maneuver is apparently legal because the SPLOST and TSPLOST interest replaces money in the general fund designated for similar expenses. State law requires that money from special-purpose local-option sales taxes be spent on the projects voters approved, but it appears he found an end-around.
In the end, the commission approved Hamby’s version of the budget by a 7–3 vote, with Fisher, Johnson, Thornton and commissioners Tiffany Taylor, Allison Wright and John Culpepper also in favor. Link and Commissioner Patrick Davenport backed Myers’ budget. Interestingly, none of the seven commissioners who sided with Hamby attended a May 22 budget work session where Myers presented her initial budget proposal. Hamby did not release his budget publicly until June 5.
Budget discussions “didn’t go where I wanted,” Girtz told Flagpole, citing concerns about not only the use of SPLOST and TSPLOST interest, but the impact of the millage rate reduction on future budgets if inflation continues to rise.
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