Impact of regional SPLOST on county infrastructure.

PDFTech ReportFHWA-GA-12-10179929State taxationHighway user taxationSales taxLocal taxationTransportationSpecial-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)regional SPLOSTstransportation financeinfrastructure financespecial tax districtGeorgiaUnited StatesGeorgia. Department of Transportation. Office of ResearchRoss, Catherine L.Woo, MyungjeBoston, ThomasGeorgia Institute of Technology. School of Civil and Environmental EngineeringGeorgia Tech Research CorporationGeorgia. Department of Transportation. Office of ResearchUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionIn response to fiscal constraints on transportation funding and the need to address transportation problems and create regional solutions, Georgia is proposing a 1% regional Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). To accommodate this initiative, Georgia created 12 Special Tax Districts that will affect all Georgia counties. This research (1) provides information on the challenges that other regional initiatives have faced and the strategies utilized in gaining voter support for such initiatives; (2) identifies possible implications that arise from the relationship between existing county SPLOSTs and the proposed regional SPLOSTs; and (3) provides strategies for the successful implementation of this regional initiative by estimating the likelihood that county-specific sales tax referenda for transportation will succeed and by identifying the factors that influence voting outcomes. The research identifies multi-jurisdictional initiatives across the U.S. which use transportation sales taxes as an alternative funding mechanism to derive the possible impacts a regional transportation sales tax might have on the ability of individual counties to secure county-specific sales taxes for transportation. Although there have been multicounty transportation sales tax initiatives undertaken across the U.S., none compare to the scale proposed in Georgia. The case studies in the report are a review of voter approval in other states of county-specific transportation sales tax initiatives occurring while a previous regional sales tax was in place, or vice versa. The voting process is examined through the use of models to identify major factors associated with the success of Georgia SPLOSTs. Separate models were run based on the purpose of SPLOSTs. Also, each special tax district is examined using SPLOST data to determine which districts and counties historically support SPLOSTs when the purpose is considered. The results show that the new regional SPLOSTs may bring minimal or no negative effect on county level transportation projects, since some of the proceeds from the regional SPLOSTs will also be earmarked for local transportation projects. However, the regional SPLOSTs, which propose only transportation projects, may negatively impact other new capital outlay projects at the local level, particularly when both education SPLOSTs and regional SPLOSTs are active in the same county. This implies that the competitive purposes of SPLOSTs will be more critical than those between county-specific and regional SPLOSTs