White County contests SPLOST payment

Cleveland - The White County Board of Commissioners say they are not going to let a shortfall of over a hundred thousand dollars in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) revenue they are due from the state go by without a fight.

The county received a check in February from the state for January SPLOST collections that was short by about $120,000.

At Monday's commission meeting County Manager Mike Melton told the commissioners that he sent a letter to the Georgia Department of Revenue asking for an explanation.

Melton said the reply he go back just detailed the funds the county had received without any explanation for the shotfall.

During their discussion the commissioners found out that White County is not the only county in this deficit boat.

Commissioner Edwin Nix said, "If we don't pursue this it could happen again, and, you know, if the state sets a trend on this and people set back and let it happen, there ain't nothing from keeping it from happening again."

The commissioners were wondering out loud during the meeting about the timing of the county's shortfall in funds and the Department of Revenue announcing a large increase in their revenue for the month.

After several minutes of discussion Commission Chairman Travis Turner said they will be taking steps to get to the bottom of this.

Turner said, "In the the next couple of weeks we're going to be scheduling a time to go down and visit with the department of revenue; we owe that to the citizens of White County."

The shortfall not only affected the county, but both the cities in the county, Cleveland and Helen.