A $5 million bond issue is in the works to account for half of about $10 million devoted to improving roadways in Pike County, and none of it will require a tax increase, supervisors said Wednesday.
Supervisors recently adopted a resolution of intent to borrow $5 million, which will be paid back with use tax revenues that are generated from taxes on items purchased over the internet.
Counties started receiving that money in 2018. Pike County gets about $1.3 million a year, and about half of that will be used to repay the yearly note on the general obligation bond, officials said.
Troy Johnson, an attorney with Jackson law firm Butler Snow who has been working with supervisors on the project, said Wednesday marked the deadline for opponents to file a petition to force the measure to a vote, but no one protested the bond issue.
“You’re free to move forward on the bond issue without a vote,” he said.
Johnson said the bond issue will be repaid over 12 years at about 4% interest, with projected payments of $625,000 a year. A resolution adopted Wednesday scheduled a bond sale for Sept. 15.
“If the rate is OK with y’all, we’ll adopt that resolution and award the bid then,” Johnson said.
Supervisor Sam Hall called the move a significant step for the county, noting that the $5 million being borrowed will be coupled with another $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to make significant infrastructure changes.
“I think it’s important for the community to know what we’re doing here with roads and bridges,” he said. “We already set aside $5 million from ARPA. Roughly, it’s $10 million on roads and I’m so glad we can do this, because this board here, we’ve been pressing for three years to get some relief on roads.”
Supervisor Robert Accardo noted that state law limits counties and municipalities to spending the use tax revenues on roads and bridges.
“It’s not like we can choose any other use for this money,” he said.
Resident Jack Martin noted that general obligation bonds typically come with a tax increase and questioned how the move would affect taxes. Officials said there would be no change to the millage rate, since the bond issue will use the county’s internet sales tax payments to cover the expense.
“It won’t be any burden on the taxpayers,” County Administrator Tami Dangerfield said.
“This is internet sales tax money that the county gets. We get $1.3 million each year, and we’re just leveraging this,” board president Jake Gazzo said.
Pike County isn’t the only county taking this approach to road repairs, as bond attorneys have been appearing before county board of supervisors elsewhere for months pitching similar proposals.
Accardo said the plan to borrow a large amount of money and devote it to widescale road repairs makes more sense than nickel-and-diming the work with yearly use tax revenues, which won’t go nearly as far.
“If we take that and put it on the roads every year, we’re going to be potholing,” he said. “Potholing isn’t getting it done.”
Supervisor Lee Fortenberry called the relatively new income source “a blessing.”
Martin complained that the county isn’t using the resources it already has paid for, including paving equipment purchased three years ago. County road manager Wendell Alexander noted that the county just purchased four dump truck bodies for the equipment that morning, and that purchased was significantly delayed by supply chain issues.
Supervisor Tazwell Bowsky, a frequent critic of county road plans, opposed the bond vote because he said it doesn’t do enough to help municipalities with their road problems.
“The cities are not getting any help,” he said. “I can’t vote if the cities are being left out.”
The vast majority of roads in Bowsky’s district are located within McComb and Summit city limits, although recent redistricting significantly increased the number of county road miles for his District 1.
Bowsky said the county historically hasn’t helped its municipalities with significant road and bridge work.
“That money is for bridges, right?” he asked before pointing to deficiencies no the Hamilton Street bridge in McComb’s Baertown neighborhood and the still-closed Fernwood Road bridge.
“There’s two bridges that haven’t been done in the last three years,” Bowsky said.
Garrett Smith of Neel-Schaffer Engineering said advertisements for bids for work on the Hamilton Street bridge started to publish on Wednesday, and the Fernwood Road bridge is nearly complete.
Smith said subcontractors need to finish up some asphalt and gravel work, and Hall asked Smith to exert some pressure to get that going.
“You can see the bridge is finished, it’s just the little small stuff they’ve got to do,” Hall said.
