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SPLOST 2022

I encourage everyone to take a hard look at what the Board of Commissioners have proposed to the people of Glynn County.

The list of “projects” is, for the most part, very general in description. There is NO indication of scheduling or priority in terms of the list. There is virtually no planning that has been completed.

There is NO LIMIT on the commission’s ability to alter the estimates, or for that matter, alter the “projects” themselves since the list is NOT SPECIFIC, with a few exceptions.

The commission has clearly stated that they intend to exercise the MAXIMUM DISCRETION ALLOWABLE BY LAW in the implementation of this program.

In fact, I will be more than happy to debate any one of the commissioners, or all seven of them, at a time and place of their choosing, on the merits of this proposed Referendum.

Following is a quick read, 3 minutes, of why I am opposed to this SPLOST.

Jeff Kilgore

3 mins · 
Our really brilliant Board of Commissioners quite clearly knows more than the top economists in the country. Not only that, they are better political prognosticators than the top pollsters.

President Xi told Biden today that "...those that play with fire set themselves on fire and will perish." He promised a "fiery death" for anyone who interfered with China's view regarding Taiwan. Which...by the way, a significant portion of our computer chips are manufactured in Taiwan.

It sounds to me like the United States is extremely close to having to make a strategic decision regarding the decades old pledge to defend Taiwan. It is not unreasonable to suggest, this country may be forced into a military confrontation with China.

But our county commission is undeterred in their obsession with taking more of your money.

All while America's worker's compensation has increase a little more than 6 percent, however, the simple fact is inflation has eroded our income to the extent that REAL wages are decreased significantly. Even though most folks are earning MORE, the real purchasing power is LESS !

Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary to Obama, says that a recession is "inevitable". Steve Moore, a former OMB Director and advisor to Trump, says it is ..."sheer folly given high inflation to float a trillion dollar spending spree accompanied by a trillion dollar tax hike."
Yet, that is what the federal government is intent on doing. The spending increase will increase inflation and the tax increase will deepen the recession.

And the financial geniuses on our Board of Commissioners think Glynn County is immune to it all.

The Biden administration immediately spent $ 3 Trillion upon being sworn into office. That was followed by the $ 1.9 Trillion American Recovery Act, which was followed by the $ 1.1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill. And now they, with Joe Manchin's able assistance, are intending to spend another $ 700 Billion on what is being called an "inflation fighting" reconciliation bill.

The Federal Reserve increased the interest burden on the American people .75 of a point today. Most top economists have already predicted that the housing market is tanking. How many of those jobs will vanish in the next year ?

But our intrepid Board of Commissioners thinks that it is OK to saddle this community with a tax increase of approximately $ 100 MILLION (their theoretical portion that YOU WILL PAY) .

AFTER increasing the tax digest valuation more than 25 percent on your property THIS YEAR.

Totally ignoring the 20,000 Glynn County residents who live at or below poverty, who struggle every day just to get by.

And they are going to take TWELVE YEARS to complete the SPLOST folly that they are proposing.

I will be voting NO !

SPLOST 2022 Proposal

Below you will find a summary of the Glynn County SPLOST propoal by Jeff Kilgore.

https://glynncounty.org/2284/SPLOST-2022

Greetings,

I am writing to alert you to the release today of the DRAFT Inter-Governmental Agreement, which will be the framework within which the SPLOST 2022 would be managed if it is approved by the voters of Glynn County. As you will see, this document is NOTHING more than a request by the Board of Commissioners (“BOC”) to give them an approval to create a SIX YEAR SLUSH FUND, with total discretion to do WHATEVER THEY WISH, WHENEVER THEY WISH. I will point you to where in the Agreement it says EXACTLY that as their intent.

A couple of things you should know when considering this SPLOST. The Operating BOC Budget for 2022 (period ended June 30, 2022) was $ 80 MILLION dollars, up from $ 74 MILLION in 2021, or an increase of 7.4 percent. The Operating Budget Revenue Surplus over the three years ended 2021 is approximately $ 24 MILLION. The aggregate surplus of funds held by Glynn County, which represents the OVER COLLECTION of funds from Glynn County taxpayers is already more than $ 100 MILLION.

Glynn County is awash in cash, as evidenced by the BOC recent decision to fund the intended Frederica / Sea Island roundabout (more than $ 6 MILLION allocated) and the Glynn County Court Expansion (approximately $ 15 MILLION) from the existing Surplus.

I would submit that this BOC has MORE than enough Special Projects to manage over the ensuing two years, not the least of which is the completion of the SPLOST 2016 SPLOST projects.

The first thing that you should know is this is a proposal for a SIX YEAR SPLOST. If approved, the collections will extend through March 31, 2029. [ Sec 1 (a)(ii) ]

The total revenue forecast for this SIX YEAR SPLOST is slightly more than $ 170 MILLION. They say $ 133 MILLION, but that is a formality. The Referendum will be for BOTH TIER One and TIER TWO, which is a blanket approval to collect the tax for SIX YEARS. 

The first and, to me, most important point is that these commissioners are TOTALLY insensitive to the reality that there are more than 18,000 people in Glynn County that live at or below poverty. Any fool knows that those people cannot afford a new tax in the face of debilitating inflation and an impending recession which is resulting in a net wage DECREASE. Those poor folks cannot make it week to week NOW ! There is no telling how many poor people will be forced to give up their homes due to the failure to pay property taxes. Of course, that assumes that the City is actually attempting to collect the property taxes, now that the City has taken over the collection of taxes.

Just as in the past, this SPLOST is scheduled to last as long as the BOC wants it to. In other words, the SPLOST 4 (passed in 2000) and SPLOST 5 (passed in 2005) are still hoarding the taxpayers money contrary to the SPLOST Law, which says that excess funds (held by the county AFTER all of the projects approved on the Referendum have been completed) are to be used to pay down debt or returned to the taxpayer. Of course, the Glynn county management has ignored the law for the past 20 years. Section 5 4. (b) says that SPLOST 2022 will NOT TERMINATE until the last penny is spent. 

Many of you may remember when the BOC told us in 2016 that SPLOST 6 would restore our confidence. This BOC is STILL trying to complete all of the projects SIX YEARS later. 

The real slight of hand authored by the truth challenged county attorney is saved for Section 4 (d). with the following language regarding termination of the SPLOST :

The completion of all Tier 1 projects described in Exhibit “A”, and the completion of those Tier 2 projects described in Exhibit “A” that were actually implemented using unexpended SPLOST 2022 proceeds, if any, after all Tier 1 projects were fully funded at their estimated costs.

Of course, that includes all games which may be invented between now and when the money runs out, like Pickle Ball, (which was funded by SPLOST 5), where some influential county residents decide they want the county to fund their recreation. 

And of course, the county attorney’s deception continues with Section 4 (d), which reads as follows :

Proceeds under the amount estimated in the Referendum question shall be allocated in accordance with the percentages set forth in the Agreement. 

What that REALLY means is that if the SPLOST Referendum comes up short in tax collections, say because of a war (Taiwan) or a deep three year recession (wait for it) then the County and the City have to make up the short fall in accordance with the ratio split of 78 percent to the County and 22 percent to the City as contained in the Inter-Governmental Agreement.

The real question is whether the City attorney can read, because in Section 5 (e) the Inter-Governmental Agreement says the following :

…the County shall be entitled to retain any interest on SPLOST funds held by the City in the City SPLOST Fund.

If I was the City attorney, that would not be an acceptable provision and I would make sure the City Commissioners got that changed. Apparently, City Attorney Brian Corry appears to be incompetent.

Of course the City Attorney must not be competent, because the SPLOST Law stipulates that SPLOST funds MUST NOT BE COMINGLED. Here is the link to the City’s SPLOST disclosure on the City web site :

https://www.brunswickga.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/finance/page/12033/2019splost.pdf

As you can plainly see, the City comingles the SPLOST 4 and SPLOST 5 funds. Further, the SPLOST Law specifically states that the reporting of the individual SPLOST issues showing the source and use of funds must be completed every year end at December 31st, not at June 30 as shown on the City’s exhibit. And, of course, the City’s exhibit is dated June 30, 2019, which is woefully behind the required reporting by THREE YEARS. Apparently no one in City government cares. As stated above regarding the County, the elected officials in this community DO NOT BELIEVE in returning taxpayers funds when there are excess proceeds, so the City also has kept the 20 year old revenues from SPLOST 4 and SPLOST 5.

Section 6. covers the procedure for the disbursement of SPLOST proceeds, and Section 6. (b) provides that the County will disburse the City’s 22 percent portion of the current month’s SPLOST proceeds to the City within ten days. It will be interesting to see if the County complies with that provision, since they have NEVER done that in the history of SPLOST. It also begs the question of how the County is going to seize the interest earnings on the funds deposited in a City bank account.

What is really interesting is the County and the City are selling this SPLOST on the basis of Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects. The REALITY is that there will NEVER be a SPLOST Tier 2 project started because they have just thrown in some haphazard guesses on the project cost estimates. Some may be high and some may be low, but be assured that the vast majority of the projects are UNDER BUDGETED simply because the numbers are 2022 numbers that DO NOT account for the shortage of materials and the fact that this country is in the throes of inflation running at between 18 and 30 percent depending on what you are trying to acquire. The ACTUAL cost of the projects at implementation will probably average a minimum of 10 percent OVER the original estimated cost shown on the Referendum.

So, in my opinion, the elected officials are intentionally deceiving the public by even discussing Tier 2 projects as an inducement for the public to support this SPLOST, because those projects will never see the light of day.

Now to the REAL SCANDAL of this SPLOST. Section 9 (a) says the following :

The County and City reserve the right to modify their respective estimated projects budgets as circumstances dictate.

And for the REALLY BAD SCANDAL, here is what Section 9 (c) says :

The County and City agree that each approved SPLOST project associated with this Agreement will be completed or substantially completed five (5) years after the termination of the SPLOST. GREAT ! Who gets to define “substantially completed” ?

Of course that means that they have FIVE YEARS AFTER March 31, 2029 to complete the projects. So those of you still alive in 2034 may still be wondering when your favorite SPLOST project may be completed.

But just in case that sentence is not clear enough, here is Section 9 (e) :

The County and the City wish to retain the maximum discretion allowed by law with regard to funding and implementing SPLOST projects.

Just as I said in the opening paragraph. The County and City can do anything they want, because the SPLOST Law does not contain any definitive restrictions on the discretion exercised by the governing bodies.

I encourage you to get actively involved in the opposition to this blatant attempt by the BOC and the City Commission to abuse their authority and to seize your money for nothing more than paving and drainage projects which these governments have been responsible for since their formation. There is only one or two ACTUAL SPECIAL PROJECTS on this list. The Gateway entrance to SSI and the Fire Station and equipment for the mainland are the only qualifying Special Projects on the list in my opinion.

Just to highlight how disingenuous this BOC really is, they actually NAMED the project list “needs”. This SPLOST list is nothing more than a “Wish List”. It should be defeated by the people of Glynn County.