In just a little over a week, voters will head to the polls in Georgia.
One of the items that will be on the ballot for some Central Georgians is a transportation sales tax, also known as TSPLOST.
Jarius Chatman calls the intersection of Wesleyan Drive and Bowman Road dangerous.
“There have been plenty of times I thought I was going to get hit,” said Chatman.
But despite feeling unsafe, Chatman says he has to go through the intersection every time he leaves his mom’s house.
“Say all four cars might pull up at the same time and somebody might go at the same time and it just causes all type of confusion,” said Chatman.
That is one reason Laura Mathis, the executive director of the Middle Georgia Regional Commission, says they would use funds from the TSPLOST to turn the intersection into a roundabout or add a traffic light.
“That’s an area that’s heavily traveled by folks over in Jones County, Monroe County and folks that go over to that part of the city for shopping,” said Mathis.
Mathis says if voters approve the penny tax, it would generate about $637 million over 10 years.
75 percent of those funds would go towards funding 55 regional projects, like the intersection or making improvements to Highway 96.
The other 25 percent would go back to 11 counties in the Central Georgia region.
“Each city and county would receive an allocation based on road mileage and population for them to use for additional transportation projects,” said Mathis.
For example, over the 10 years, Bibb County would receive more than $34 million to use on local projects.
Houston County would receive just over $31 million and that is because Bibb County has a higher road mileage.
“Construction of a new road or bicycle pedestrian paths, really anything that’s in the transportation realm,” said Mathis.
These are all improvements that Chatman says could help prevent accidents, and make drivers like himself feel safer.
“The roundabout would bring attention to get you to slow down,” said Chatman.
If the voters approve the tax on May 22, Mathis says people will see the penny tax starting October 1.
Below are all of the counties that would be a part of the TSPLOST, and details on how much funding each county would get to use on their own:
