Sales tax vote to help fund new Government Center is coming. What residents need to know
Columbus city leaders will ask voters to pass a special purpose local option sales tax on Nov. 2.
Mayor Skip Henderson said Thursday that a list of projects to be funded by the tax is not yet complete, but renovating or replacing the Columbus Government Center remains a priority.
“We’re still working things out with the building,” he said of the 1971 complex downtown at 100 10th St. “We’ve got to keep our promise to the people that we would give them a safe environment to come visit, and we’re going to do that.”
The cost of the project has not been decided, he said, nor has the total amount of sales tax funding the city would seek for that and other capital improvements.
“We’ve got it down to two or three different options, and we’re really not going to publicize which way we’re leaning yet, because we have to make sure it fits in our budget,” Henderson said of the Government Center.
Moving offices away from the current site remains an option, he said.
“It depends on what council decides,” he said. “It has always been an option. I just don’t think it’s the best option.”
City leaders have talked about replacing or remodeling the building since 2017, when the earliest estimates indicated replacing the complex could cost up to $100 million, and renovating it around half that.
The city expects to have new estimates soon, Henderson said.COVID-19 lockdowns over the past year have prompted more people to work remotely, he added, and less office space may be needed now.
A new city sales tax would be set to expire not on a specific date, but when a set amount of money cited in the referendum is collected, he said.
“You would issue bonds to do some of the projects, which we would have to, then you get to continue it until you achieve all the money necessary to do the projects,” he said.
The overall sales tax rate in Columbus currently is 8%. Here’s a breakdown of each penny charged per dollar spent:
- 4% is the state’s sales tax that doesn’t expire.
- 1% is the city’s LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) that doesn’t expire.
- 1% is the city’s OLOST (Other Local Option Sales Tax) that also does not expire. Passed in 2008, its revenue pays for public safety (70%) and infrastructure (30%).
- 1% is the school district’s ESPLOST, renewed last year after it expired June 30.
- 1% is a regional TSPLOST that expires Dec. 31, 2022. That revenue funds capital transportation projects throughout 16 counties.
Were voters to approve the city’s proposed SPLOST in November, the overall tax rate would rise to 9%.
Another special election
The city’s plans for a November referendum came to light during a Thursday meeting of the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration, where Executive Director Nancy Boren informed the board her staff would need to prepare for the special election.
Columbus Council considered asking for a referendum in 2020, but held off when the Muscogee County school board decided to ask voters to renew an expiring sales tax for its capital projects. That referendum passed with almost 70% of the vote.
Henderson also cited economic impacts of COVID-19 as a reason to delay the vote.
A referendum this November would be Muscogee County’s second special election this year. Early voting is now underway to choose a District 2 school board representative to replace Mike Edmondson, who died this past February.
The date of that special election is June 15.
Boren said the next step in the sales tax process will be Columbus Council’s finalizing its list of capital projects and deciding how to pose the referendum question to voters. The elections board will issue a “call” or notice of the special election when it has that information, she said.
The voter registration deadline for the Nov. 2 special election would be Oct. 4, she added.
More neighborhood voting precincts may be relocated by that time, she said. Two in school board District 2 already are changing for the June special election:
- Voters who cast ballots at St. Mark United Methodist Church, 6795 Whitesville Road, now will go to Central Baptist Church, 8303 Whitesville Road.
- Voters assigned to Cornerstone Church of God, 7701 Lloyd Road, now will go to Chattahoochee Valley Community Church, 122 Bascom Court.
Boren said voters also should be aware that because of legislation passed by the Georgia General Assembly, Columbus now has only one absentee ballot drop box, inside the City Services Center at 3111 Citizens Way.
Access to that drop box is limited to center’s business hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and it’s limited to the period of early voting, which will end at 5 p.m. June 11, for the school board election.
This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 6:00 AM.