In its meeting Tuesday evening, the Columbia County Board of Commissioners voted on how to distribute the county’s local option sales tax, or LOST funds.
While the special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, is designed to benefit municipalities for specific projects, LOST is designed to provide property tax relief via sales tax.
“The county applies 100% of the LOST revenue that we get to all the property owners in the county and city to rollback property taxes,” said county manager Scott Johnson. “So when you get your property tax bill you’ll actually see a credit, for county sales tax credit. That is the LOST proceeds. The more sales tax we get the lower our property taxes.”
On Tuesday, July 26, the commissioners met with the cities of Grovetown and Harlem to determine how the LOST proceeds would be distributed throughout the county. After these negotiations, Johnson explained, the city administrators of Harlem and Grovetown agreed that in 2023, Grovetown would receive 11% of the funds, Harlem 2.5% and the county the 86.5%.
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“We are required by law to negotiate every 10 years, in conjunction with the census, with any cities in the in the county to renegotiate the last distribution and the formulas that we use to distribute that,” Johnson said.
Johnson also noted that if greater percentages were distributed to the cities, the county would have to either raise the millage rate, or cut its budget by the same amount, as LOST funds are a “direct opposite of property taxes” and that the county doesn’t use that revenue for anything else.
The commissioners unanimously voted to in favor of the intergovernmental agreement between the Columbia County, Harlem and Grovetown to distribute the LOST funds at these percentages.
The board also approved a variance request by Parminder Singh to allow his Grovetown gas station and convenience store, Gas Pro #3 at 4311 Wrightsboro Rd., to operate for 24 hours. Singh applied for the variance last month, explaining in his application that he sought to both increase revenue and prevent a series of unsolved burglaries on the property.
The planning staff recommended approving the request under the conditions that Singh and company provide a light plan showing how they will shield light from nearby residential properties, and that the operation follows other local codes such as having no deliveries, or not emptying the dumpster, after 11 p.m.
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As there were no comments opposing the request, and no complaints from neighbors, the commissioners voted unanimously to grant the variance.
The upcoming shopping center at Ronald Reagan Drive, which is to include the drive-thru café Goat Kick Coffee, also received approval for its variance request. Evans Society Investment group petitioned to allow painted signage on a brick wall of one of its tenants. The board voted to approve, provided the signage doesn’t exceed 75 square feet.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
