Macon City Council Votes to Support SPLOST

Tonight, Macon City Council unanimously voted to support the county’s SPLOST, even though the commissioners did not make any changes after council reviewed the list last night.

Nearly $165 million dollars will be spent on the four main catergories:

• Economic Development
• Debt Retirement for both the City and County
• Public Safety
• Recreation and Cultural Arts

Mayor Reichert says these projects will help create an economic boom by bringing more local jobs to the area, a benefit for citizens in both the county and the city.

“Today is the day one of how we sell this and explain it to the people and as I said, the more they learn about, the more they’re going to be impressed with it and be inclined to vote for it,” says Mayor Reichert.

Councilman, Mike Cranford, says he hopes the citizens will be able to see all the benefits the SPLOST has to offer if it passes.

“The unfortunate thing is if there’s one person who sees one thing in there that they don’t like well then they’re going to say well I’m going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and you can’t do that. This is not a perfect document, but it’s almost perfect. It’s as close to perfect as we can come to satisfying all the needs.”

Council member Henry Ficklin’  was the only person who did raise some concern before tonight’s vote. He says there were some concerns about how the the money was divided among the projects. He still decided to support the SPLOST hoping the county and the city will be able to work together to make sure these goals are completed effectively.

Click here to see the full list of projects.