Catoosa County Commission Chairman Bill Clark produced on Monday a rough draft of the proposed 2009 special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST, to the 2020 Committee, the advisory group he calls “a true cross-section of the county.”

About 15 committee members attended a meeting at the county government building to look over the proposal and give their input.

Clark estimates that if voters approve the one-cent sales tax for the 2009-2013 period, the county will have be-tween $54-56 million over those five years for the projects designated on the ballot.

“This is an attempt on my part and others to balance this money so it can best meet the needs of the county,” Clark said as he passed out a project distribution list. “These numbers will surely change several times before the vote.”

The list reflects a $20 million increase in SPLOST revenue from the 2004 incarnation, a testament to the vast population growth in Catoosa County.

At the top of the list are the estimated disbursements to the cities of Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe, followed by items including sewers, recreation, emergency equipment, public buildings, roads, economic development and money for the library.

Clark asked those in attendance to tell him what on the list they thought should be cut back and what deserved more.

“Remember this is kind of a zero-sum game,” Clark said. “If you add something here, you’ve got to cut something there.”

The consensus of the group points to spending about half the estimated five-year revenue on the largest items on the list – water, sewer, roads, bridges and stormwater projects.

One number that stood out for a few of the committee members was $4 million proposed for economic develop-ment.

“I think most people will want to know where that will go, and right now I can’t justify that much money,” said L.C. Cripps.

Cripps also expressed concern over vague details in the large allotments for sewer projects. “There’s not enough breakdown in these numbers, like where is this line going to run, and how much are the engineering fees going to be, to just give $3 million here and $4 million there.”

Cripps agreed with committee member Tony Henson that sewer and water infrastructure are the top priorities for Catoosa County, given that population is estimated to double here by 2028.

“If we don’t have water, then we won’t need to worry about anything else,” Henson said.

At an estimated $1 million per mile for a sewer line, Clark pointed out that the county would do well to get sewer projects done now. “But I don’t want to give people service they don’t want,” he said, citing a 10 to 15 percent sign-up rate for existing subdivision customers.

Clark suggested using SPLOST funds to lay the main sewer lines only and then let existing homes or future de-velopers pay for the lines to hook to them.

Catoosa County roads are “mostly okay” in Clark’s estimation, with paving being the area of prime need. He pointed to $2 million of federal money already in-pocket that will be used for accel/decel lanes.

“A good part of SPLOST road money will have to go toward intersection improvements and bridges, of which we have a few getting old and crumbling,” he said.

There was general agreement at the meeting that voters would not approve a SPLOST referendum without a va-riety of projects, including recreation and library funding.

Clark said he would like to appoint a board to oversee recreation money disbursements to the county’s three recreation associations in Ringgold, Fort Oglethorpe and Boynton.

Sarah Hutelin, also a member of the Catoosa County Library board, spoke up on its behalf for continued funding, saying that there are several state mandates that the library is required to keep up with, and that library facilities are used by a vast cross-section of the county population.

The Catoosa County Library received $350,000 in the 2004 SPLOST and the new proposal is for $500,000 over the next five years.

The final topic addressed the importance of SPLOST.

“What happens if it doesn’t pass?” asked Barbara Wilson, a 43-year resident of Lakeview who is running for county commission this year.

Chairman Clark replied that it would be important to determine why it didn’t pass and then adjust the referen-dum accordingly for the next ballot.

“It’s an incredible tool for the county,” Clark said, adding that it would be hard to lower county property taxes without SPLOST in place.