Courtesy of our friends in Montgomery, residents of Baldwin County will have a chance on June 3 to vote on a Proposed Constitutional Amendment allowing for collection of up to four additional mills in ad valorem taxes to pay for transportation infrastructure improvements. To make it really convenient for all of us, our county commissioners will include on this very same ballot a proposal to issue general obligation bonds for funding a list of these transportation infrastructure projects throughout the county.
Further, they will be proposing the maximum millage increase permitted: 4 mills. The additional funds collected will be used to pay off the bonds authorized as part of this “Pay-As-You-Go” package.
To advise county residents of this activity, and to promote the implementation of this pay-as-you-go system, the county leaders have published a tabloid insert to all of the local papers (somehow overlooking Lagniappe, but that’s another issue for another time). However, for those smart folks who look to Lagniappe and “Jubilee” to keep them informed on ESho politics, this column will correct this oversight. It also will provide an overview of the proposal written in standard English – not bureaucrat-ese – and with graphics that you can see – not pale, tiny lines on smudgy paper.
OK – First look at this flashy graphic showing the top-level distribution of pay-as-you-go funds. Of the $70 million proposed to be spent, a bit less than half will be on county projects ($30.6 million, shown in blue). An additional third ($24.5 million, in green) is committed to projects in one or more jurisdictions (e.g. county-city, two cities or towns). This leaves $15.1 million (yellow and pink segments) for cities or towns.
Can’t go into too much detail here, but I can assure you that the big bucks are going to the big impact projects: Improving secondary roads to decrease use of major highways throughout the area, increasing capacity on hurricane evacuation routes, adding access points on I-10 and upgrading bridges and drainage systems.
Since most of the population lives in town and cities (and in the bottom half of the county), where these funds are going is of serious interest. Most of these projects are for paving or resurfacing streets or improving drainage within city and town corporate limits. All this information is available in the official publication from the county commissioners, but its presentation format and casual organization makes community comparisons hard. I think everybody ought to see how their community fares compared to similar locations within the county. So we got that info for you in a short easy-to-read list, with project expenses aggregated by community:
With just a moment’s analysis, you can see that almost all of pay-as-you-go funded transportation stuff (New roads, bridges, drains, resurfacing or repairs and upgrades to same) is in the lower part of the county. There are some county-wide projects planned in the upper-far-reaches of Baldwin, but only a few. Refer to the smudgy flyer for details – I checked you can’t read the map for that area, but the narrative description is clear enough.
Basically the situation can be summed up with, “Too bad if you live north of Bay Minette.” You’ll pay and get little back. But then there aren’t all that many people up there (and it’s not even within the Lagnaippe distribution area). So suck it up and go with what the teeming masses in lower Baldwin want.
And what do I assume this major majority wants? They want all the things in the pay-as-you-go package and more. So on June 3 all these folks should get out and vote for the bonds and the four-mill ad valorem tax increase. We’ve all been raging about over-crowded roads, water runoff problems and a general lowering of quality of life along Baldwin’s Eastern Shore and Gulf Coast. So here’s a way to get some fixes started – including the long-delayed completion of County Road 13 from Weeks Bay to I-10.
Best, while agreeing to a new tax, we aren’t just giving our politicians money to squander any way they want. Every penny is to go to the transportation projects described in the county commissioners’ resolution (2008-88 for our detail-oriented readers). I suspect that this is about as much control as any taxpayers can expect to have over where their dollars are spent.
Maybe not exactly what everybody wants (like who wants to pay more taxes), but pay-as-you-go funding pays for transportation projects that are crucial to keeping lower Baldwin a great place to live and visit.
Good purpose, good projects, good resolution. So I encourage you all to vote for the pay-as-you-go program on June 3 – if you don’t, you’ll be voting by default for perpetuating the very transportation problems we all complain about.
Contact Pete Gleszer at jubilee@lagniappemobile.com.
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