Hephzibah And Blythe Talk Sharing In Sales Tax

Augusta, GA—They’re meeting so they will not be left out in the cold.

It’s February, but Augusta, Hephzibah, and Blythe officials are all looking forward to June, when they hope voter’s OK the extension of the sales tax.

Augusta city leaders sat down this afternoon with officials from Blythe and Hephzibah to talk about those towns share of the next phase of the SPLOST.

Augusta, of course, gets the lion’s share, but Hephzibah and Blythe will not go away empty-handed.

Blythe stands to take in a little more than one million from the next phase of the sales tax, a lot of money for this town.

Blythe’s annual budget is only $280,000.

The top priority is to deal with growth and town officials want to use $450,000 from the tax for the water system.

“To improve the service delivery system our system was installed in the mid 60’s and there are some areas that just need to be upgraded and brought up to speed,” says Blythe City Administrator Loriann Chancey.

Chancey says another Blythe priority is $200,000 for a Veterans Memorial Park.

Hephzibah’s wish list stands at six million dollars, that’s more than it’s expected to receive.

The number one priority for Hephzibah is $5 million to upgrade sewer system.

Hephzibah would also like to use $675,000 in sales tax money to expand the city cemetery.

Commissioners are scheduled to get together Thursday to discuss the sales tax list with the hope of having a final plan approve before March, 2nd.

That’s the deadline the city must meet to hold the sales tax vote in June.