One-cent tax ballot-bound

Members of Oconee County Council now have a timeline for a capital project one-cent sales tax proposition to land on next year’s General Election ballot. Art Holbrooks, county strategic planner, gave the members of the council’s budget and finance committee a list of dates to meet to qualify a one-cent sales tax as a referendum in November 2014. Look for the full council to take action on a resolution at its August 20 meeting. But the key date, Holbrooks said, is not until August next year—when the county is obligated to turn in required documents to election officials. One of the requirements is the appointment of a six-member commission to advise the council on which projects are to be funded by the tax. At this point, the county does not know how much an extra cent on the sales tax would generate, nor does it have a list of projects for which the voters would cast their ballots. In the audience were several members of the Oconee Library Board of Trustees, who have interest in what the sales tax might mean to their Seneca Library building project and other library needs countywide.