Regional TSPLOST revenue comes up short | www.myajc.com

Projects funded by the TSPLOST approved in 2012 by voters in three regions of the state will be evaluated and potentially scaled back after tax collections have come in far below projections, the Georgia Department of Transportation said.

The state will decide how to proceed with the transportation program – promised by proponents of the tax legislation to be a massive overhaul for roads, sidewalks and airports – within the first three months of the coming year, said Mike Dover, GDOT administrator for the Transportation Investment Act.

Each project will be analyzed by GDOT and local governments, regional commissions and citizen advisory boards where the tax is being collected, Dover said. All projects will be completed according to the legislation that created the tax but they could be of significantly less scope with a reduced budget, he said.

“You can’t build the projects with projections you don’t have,” Dover said.

Only three of 12 regions in Georgia approved the transportation special-purpose local-option tax; metro Atlanta was among those rejecting the tax.

For the 13-county region encompassing Richmond County, collections were 19 percent below projections through October. The regions centered on Albany and Vidalia were 13 percent and 19 percent behind, respectively.

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