A regional planner highlighted key points of a proposed transportation tax to the Dawson County Chamber of Commerce last week.

Adam Hazell, planning director for Georgia Mountains Regional Commission, told members they will have the opportunity next year to vote on a 1-cent sales and use tax to support regional transportation projects.

He said putting the tax on a ballot is a compromise reached by legislators, who have also talked of raising the gasoline tax to pay for state transportation improvements.

“We know that DOT is struggling to find revenue and just trying to keep up with the demand for new, wider, better, safer roads and other transportation methods. This is what we now have to work with,” he said.

A roundtable of representatives from the region is responsible with determining which projects will be funded by the tax.

“That group will take all of the transportation requests and match them to the amount of money that we anticipate will be collected,” said Dawson County Commission Chair Mike Berg, who will represent the subregion of Dawson, Lumpkin and White counties.

He said groups like the chamber of commerce would be charged with promoting the tax.

Chamber President Linda Williams said the group’s board of directors has not taken a position on the proposed tax.

“This is still very early. This is the beginning of our attempts to gather info on the tax and make it available to our membership and the public,” she said.