SPLOST advocacy group forms
The three governments are slated to officially sign off on the proposed package at a joint meeting Tuesday.
Local supporters of the proposed $63.8 million SPLOST have revived the dormant Rome/Floyd Citizens for Progress campaign committee to lobby for its passage.
The committee can accept donations and spend money to boost the package of projects that will be on the Nov. 7 election ballot. It was first established in 2006 and re-registered for the 2009 and failed 2012 special purpose, local option sales tax votes.
A filing last week with the State Ethics Commission lists Berry College attorney R. Daniel Price and Leanne Hand Cook, senior director of marketing at Harbin Clinic, as the new co-chairs.
David Newby, who chaired the SPLOST Citizens Advisory Committee that came up with the package, is treasurer.
Newby reminded the 13 advisory committee members throughout that process that they also would have to be community advocates for the SPLOST. Governments are barred from using public funds to directly promote the 1-cent sales tax.
“No one was scared off,” Newby said during a talk to the Rome Rotary Club. “These people, without exception, stood up and said we’ll put in the work needed to get the job done.”
Public funds can be spent to prepare descriptions of the projects and their potential impact but, “It is critical … that such descriptions do not express an opinion regarding the SPLOST proposal,” reads the legal guide prepared by ACCG, the nonprofit association of Georgia’s county governments.
The previous Citizens for Progress committee closed its books in December 2012 with a zero balance.
During its existence, it took in and spent a total of $7,995.72 to promote the 2012 SPLOST — a package of capital equipment with no “special” projects — that failed with just 47.1 percent of the vote. The bulk of the funding, about $6,000, came from the Rome Floyd Chamber and was spent on billboards, signs and media advertisement buys.
No financial reports are on file for the successful 2013 SPLOST, which was anchored by the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College and PAWS, the Floyd County Public Animal Welfare Services facility on North Avenue.
As the new promotion committee starts to ramp up, the three governments are slated to officially sign off this week on an intergovernmental agreement spelling out how revenue would be divided if voters approve the 2017 SPLOST.
The Rome City and Floyd County commissions, along with the Cave Spring City Council, will meet Tuesday at 8 a.m. in the Fire Administration Building, 409 E. 12th St. The meeting is open to the public.