Tuesday, Feb. 18, is the last day for Bulloch County residents to register to vote, or update information if already registered, before the county’s SPLOST renewal special election. The referendum will conclude with March 18 as Election Day, but in-person early voting opens Monday, Feb. 24.

The proposal, set forth in an intergovernmental agreement of the county Board of Commissioners and the city and town councils of Statesboro, Brooklet, Portal and Register, would extend the current 1% Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for 6 years. As stated in the ballot question, the tax is projected to raise $138 million in that time.

That one question is the only item on the ballot, with the only answers for voters to choose being “yes” or “no.” But the ballot question is more than 250 words long, listing types of projects the money can be used for, by the county government and each municipality, and naming a few specific projects. More about that will appear further below.

But first, the in-person, no-excuse early voting opportunity will extend Monday through Friday for three weeks and also include two Saturdays, just as in a Georgia general election.

“It’s the law now,” explained Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. “We didn’t use to do Saturdays unless there were federal candidates on the ballot, but after (2021 Georgia) Senate Bill 202 came about, it requires for any election, with the exception of a runoff, a full three weeks of early voting, and that includes two Saturdays as well.”

Early and absentee

The only early voting location will be the Board of Elections and Registration office at the County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201, Statesboro. It will be open for early voting 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Feb. 24-28, March 3-7 and March 10-14, and also from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, March 1, and Saturday, March 8.

Meanwhile, mail-out absentee ballots are also available to Bulloch County registered voters if applied for by a March 7 deadline. Elections office staff can mail the absentee ballot to an address outside of Bulloch County that the voter requests or to the address inside Bulloch County recorded in the voter’s current registration information.

A statewide web portal to apply for absentee ballots does not work for a local referendum such as this, Jones said, but voters can request an application by calling the county election office at 912-764-6502. The office’s email addresses are elections@bullochcounty.net and voterregistrar@bullochcounty.net. Its fax number is 912-764-8167.

On Election Day, March 18, polls in all 16 of Bulloch County’s traditional voting precincts will be open 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. for their assigned voters who haven’t voted early or absentee.

Again, Tuesday, Feb. 18 is the last day for would-be voters to register or for registered voters to update their registration for a name or address change. The deadline at the county office is 5 p.m., but a registration portal at the statewide My Voter Page, https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/, can be used until 11:59 p.m. that night.

One long question

The long question that voters will answer on their  ballots begins: “Shall a special 1 percent sales and use tax be imposed in … Bulloch County for a period of time not to exceed six years for the raising of an estimated … $138,000,000 for the purposes of (a)(i) an addition to the Bulloch County Jail, and (ii) joint solid waste projects of Bulloch County and Statesboro including, but not necessarily limited to, the purchase of space in a regional landfill … ?”

Although less than one-third of the total question, that passage sets out the first two projects, which the intergovernmental agreement calls “joint and priority projects,” meant to serve the whole county. The ballot question does not include specific cost numbers for these projects or any of the other project categories, but the agreement assigns the jail project $51 million and the joint solid waste project $9.6 million.

After those first two, the ballot question lists mostly spending categories for the county and each of the four towns, but a few specific projects are mentioned.

Examples include “public safety facilities and/or equipment,” recreational facilities, voting equipment, improvements to the courthouse and judicial buildings, for the county; computer equipment and software, water and sewer and natural gas projects, cultural facilities, administrative buildings, “parks, trails and greenspaces,” “public works and cemetery,” storm drains and public parking lots for Statesboro.

Similar spending types, including water and sewer projects and city vehicle and equipment purchases are listed for Brooklet; water main and community center improvements for Portal; but specifically a new roof on a water pump building and improvements to the town hall in Register.

The ballot question mentions no numbers other than the projected $138 million total, which is a conservative estimate and not a limit. But the intergovernmental agreement provides a breakout of the amounts for each local government.

Shares by population

After the $60.6 million assigned to the shared-priority jail and solid waste disposal projects, the revenue would be assigned to the county based on the population of its rural area and to the cities based on their shares of the county population.

The county government’s portion of the revenue would be about 55.7% of the projected additional $77.4 million, or $43.1 million. Statesboro’s city share would be 41.2% of the total, or $31.9 million,

The city of Brooklet’s share would be 2.1%, or $1.625 million. The city of Portal’s share would be 0.79%, or $611,460; the town of Register’s share, 0.19%, or $147,060.

If after economic growth or inflation the tax nets more than $138 million, the additional amounts would be directed to the same kinds of projects. A priority would be “jail debt,” with the agreement allowing the county to borrow up to $60 million for the jail project, or $9 million more than the $51 million priority revenue assigned to that purpose.