Babb: Most of SPLOST dollars will go to public safety and roads, infrastructure

Published 10:38 pm Tuesday, February 17, 2015

If we are going to ask firefighters and law enforcement officers and other public safety workers to put their lives at risk, we owe it to them to provide them the best equipment we can, says Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mike Babb.

Babb and other local officials spoke Tuesday at the Rotary Club of Dalton meeting at the Dalton Golf and Country Club. The topic of their presentation was the March 17 vote on a  Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum. Early voting on the referendum starts Monday at the Whitfield County Courthouse.

If approved by voters, the 1 percent SPLOST would last four years, beginning on July 1 of this year. It would collect some $63.6 million during that period, according to the latest estimates.

Babb said 38 percent of that would go towards public safety, such as new trucks for the Whitfield County and Dalton fire departments, a new fire station in the northwest part of the county and new vehicles for the Varnell and Cohutta police departments and the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office.

But the top public safety priority under the SPLOST is a new digital emergency communications system that would serve all county first responders as well as those of the four cities. The system would cost an estimated $12 million.

“Our current radio system is over 40 years old and expensive to maintain,” Babb said.

Even worse, he added, there are numerous “dead spots” across the county, and even in the city of Dalton, law enforcement officials and firefighters have difficulty communicating while inside some buildings.

But Rotary member John Didier questioned whether upgrading the current system by, for instance, adding more towers might solve those problems.

“I’m just not convinced that digital radios are the panacea suggested by proponents of this SPLOST,” he said.

He pointed to a fire in Houston, Texas, two years ago that left four firefighters dead. A state investigation found numerous issues led to those deaths, including a breakdown in the department’s digital radio system.

Whitfield County Fire Chief Edward O’Brien said one of the issues at that fire was that there were some 100 firefighters on the scene. With many of them trying to talk at the same time, it overloaded the system.

“I think that chances of something like that happening here are slim. It could happen, but it could happen with any system,” he said.

Forty-one percent of the SPLOST would go towards roads, bridges and other infrastructure, including straightening and moving a portion of Highway 201 in Tunnel Hill.

Babb said that project would accomplish two goals: increasing the connection between I-75 and Highway 41, making it easier to move traffic off the interstate in an emergency, and moving Highway 201 out of a residential neighborhood.

Twenty percent would go towards “quality of life” projects, including $5 million for a new recreation facility at Haig Mill Lake, which would include a five-kilometer cross country trail, restrooms, and paddle boats and a dock for them.

“This is a toughie. It is expensive,” Babb said. “But we need to be looking towards the future.”

Babb said Whitfield County is one of just seven counties in the state without a SPLOST, and two of those counties, DeKalb and Fulton, charge a 1 percent tax to fund MARTA. He said Whitfield has the 20th lowest maintenance and operations property tax rate, and all of those that have lower tax rates have a smaller population than Whitfield County or a larger tax digest.

Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce President Brian Anderson said a SPLOST provides a “balanced” approach to government financing.

“We can’t continue to have one of the lowest property tax rates in the state and not have a SPLOST,” he said.

Babb noted that the county’s 2015 budget already has a 1 mill tax increase built in. The budget has a deficit of $2.2 million, and commissioners will have to raise taxes later this year to cover that. He said if the SPLOST doesn’t pass, commissioners will still need to fund some of the projects the SPLOST would have funded.

“Something has to change, and the only thing we (commissioners) have it in our power to change is the millage rate,” he said.

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Members of the county commission are scheduled to make several presentations on the SPLOST that are open to the public:

• Monday, March 2, at the Cohutta Community Center at 8 p.m. Whitfield County Fire Chief Edward O’Brien, Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick and Varnell Mayor Anthony Hulsey are also scheduled to be in attendance.

• Tuesday, March 3, at the Dalton Golf and Country Club at 8 a.m. This is a breakfast sponsored by the Leadership Dalton-Whitfield Alumni Association and the cost is $15. You can register by calling (706) 278-7373 or at the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce website, daltonchamber.org. Dalton Mayor Dennis Mock, Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker, Sheriff Scott Chitwood, Dalton Fire Chief Bruce Satterfield, Whitfield County Fire Chief Edward O’Brien, Dalton Parks and Recreation Director Steve Card, Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Director Brian Chastain, Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick, Tunnel Hill Mayor Ken Gowin and Varnell Mayor Anthony Hulsey are scheduled to be there as well.

• Tuesday, March 10, at Dalton City Hall at 6 p.m., sponsored by The Daily Citizen and the League of Women Voters of the Dalton Area. Dalton Mayor Dennis Mock, Dalton Fire Chief Bruce Satterfield, Whitfield County Fire Chief Edward O’Brien and Dalton Parks and Recreation Director Steve Card are also scheduled to be there.