Walker County CFO: SPLOST collections exceed early expectations; projects $33.2 million county share

Walker County Chief Financial Officer Christian Roach told the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 6 that the county’s share of the 2020 SPLOST has grown faster than originally estimated and that the county projects higher end-of-cycle revenue.

Roach said the county has collected $26.9 million to date as the county’s portion of SPLOST receipts and reported $22.2 million in related expenses. He said his projection for the end of the SPLOST cycle is $33.2 million for the county portion — about $5 million higher than the estimate presented at the referendum.

Roach showed the board a year-by-year breakdown: SPLOST receipts were about $4.4 million in 2021 and have increased to roughly $6.2 million in the most recent year, a growth of about 40 percent since 2021.

During discussion, Chairwoman Teague said county leaders estimated that without the SPLOST, the county would need to raise property taxes by about "three mills" to cover planned projects. Roach and commissioners said the stronger SPLOST performance will support infrastructure and community projects identified in the referendum.

Roach said September financials were delayed for audit and noted that the county’s new finance team is pursuing deeper analyses, including the share of collections attributable to out‑of‑state visitors and tourism-related activity; he added that some of that information is held at the state level and not always publicly available.

The board asked follow-up questions about out-of-county sales and tourism, and Roach said the county will pursue more detailed analyses as the finance team completes its work.