ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Commissioner Wayne Gruenloh wants to be certain people understand the proposed “Pay As You Go” amendment that will be on the ballot when citizens go to the polls June 3 to decide whether or not to approve an additional ad valorem tax for county infrastructure needs.

He wants people to understand what the program is and isn’t.

“It’s not what I consider your normal tax and spend scenario,” said Gruenloh of “Pay As You Go,” a program that allows residents to vote on levying and collecting a special annual 4 mills (.004) ad valorem tax whose revenues would stay in the county and be spent solely on projects approved by voters.

“There’s not a lot of paving of dirt roads in this project,” said Gruenloh on Monday during an interview at the Baldwin County Commission’s Central Annex in Robertsdale. County Engineer Cal Markert was also present.

Gruenloh has been criticized the past couple of years by members of the Baldwin County Grassroots Road Paving Organization (BCGRPO), which, starting in 1992, began advocating a “fairness policy” in paving dirt roads in the county.

BCGRPO’s criticism of late as regards the county commission and Gruenloh goes back to 2005 and a community meeting in north Baldwin where Gruenloh said the county should be able to pave 50 miles of dirt roads annually; that money was no problem.

But Gruenloh said that was then and this is now. Now there is a money shortage, to the tune of approximately $14 million based on infrastructure needs delineated in the county’s Strategic Plan. And that’s where “Pay As You Go” comes in.

As regards the dirt road issue versus what Gruenloh calls protecting the “investment” the county has in infrastructure, the commissioner uses an analogy: “If I have a house and I have a hole in my roof and I want to add on a back porch, am I going to add on the porch or fix my roof? In my mind I’m going to fix my roof and protect what I’ve got before I start adding on to it.”

Yet, Gruenloh and Markert believe “Pay As You Go” would be the best thing for dirt roads and the self-proclaimed “dwellers” that live on them.

“If we’re able to get this (“Pay As You Go”) passed, it will free up some money that’s right now in the budget to take care of some of the resurfacing,” Gruenloh said.

“If it frees up that money within the budget, then I’ve got money in the budget to pave dirt roads.”

“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for dirt roads if we can get the funding (“Pay As You Go”) because they’ve paved an awful lot of dirt roads in the past few years,” said Markert of the county commission, which paved 26.82 miles of dirt roads during Fiscal Year 2007.

Indeed, Markert challenges anyone to find another Alabama county that’s paving even 10 miles of dirt roads a year.

According to Markert, the county has 1,200 miles of paved roads that need to be resurfaced every 10 years. That’s 120 miles a year at $50,000 to $60,000 per mile. One hundred miles of roads resurfaced a year times $50,000 is $5 million a year, Markert said. That wipes out what the county has budgeted for paving dirt roads. To that, he said, factor in approximately 130 bridges that need to be replaced every 50 years. That’s one, two or three bridges a year, Markert said.

If “Pay As You Go” takes care of road resurfacings and new bridge construction, then monies will be available to pave dirt roads, Markert said, echoing Gruenloh.

According to Gruenloh, when voters go to the polls June 3 they will be voting on a program whose scope is broader than paving dirt roads or not.

“We have to have priorities. The county has millions of dollars invested in infrastructure in paved roads that are out there. If we let those roads get to the point where they’re deteriorated and we have to rebuild those roads, you’re looking at significant cost.”

That isn’t to say dirt road paving would never be on a “Pay As You Go” list, Gruenloh said. If voters give their approval to the program on June 3, in five years when another list of projects is put forward, voters can say yes or no again. If they said yes, the next list of projects would “have some paving of dirt roads in it in the next four to five years,” Gruenloh said.

(Even apart from “Pay As You Go,” Gruenloh said the county commission’s goal is to pave 30 miles of dirt roads a year.)

Why not dirt road paving as part of the June 3 list of projects “set in stone” to be approved or denied by voters?

The county has to purchase rights of way in a lot of instances when dirt roads are paved, Gruenloh said.

“We didn’t want to get to the end of the four years and not have done anything,” he said, a reference to the time consuming nature of obtaining rights of way.

“My track record shows that I’m concerned about paving dirt roads,” said Gruenloh, who notes he’s lived on a dirt road before. He said “Pay As You Go” will get dirt roads paved faster.

Asked their assessment about whether the amendment proposing “Pay As You Go” will meet with voters’ approval on June 3, Gruenloh and Markert said public meetings on the subject have been “very positive.”

Both would like to see BCGRPO support the amendment. BCGRPO leadership meeting in late April, however, decided not to come out publicly in support of or opposition to “Pay As You Go.” Rather, the group decided to remain a single issue organization, namely, paving dirt roads.

Markert said the paved roads on the list of projects to be voted on June 3 are mainly “older roads that haven’t been resurfaced in 15, 20 or 30 years.” That being the case, it will benefit people who have lived here a long time as opposed to new arrivals, he said. A person who has moved into a new subdivision within the past 10 years will not see his or her road on the list of projects, Markert said.

And what of the perception that “Pay As You Go” benefits municipalities moreso than the county as far as road resurfacing?

“It’s as even as it could be,” said Markert of the four-year project list.

Gruenloh said in his mind the bulk of the money associated with “Pay As You Go” projects is in the county.

Gruenloh also points out that people who have a homestead exemption would not be paying the significant amount of taxes collected under “Pay As You Go.” That would be paid by those without a homestead exemption and who own the most expensive property, namely, properties along the coastline south of Foley, along the Eastern Shore, and the I-10 and south Ala. Highway 59 commercial corridors.

“In essence, it will have the same effect as a lodging tax would have, because those property owners will have to pass it along to the people who are renting and the commercial property (owners) to whoever is trading at their store or whatever,” he said.

Those with a homestead exemption would be taxed at 10 percent under “Pay As You Go,” those without at 20 percent, Gruenloh said.

Asked if the recent property tax debacle in Baldwin County could negatively impact “Pay As You Go” with its special ad valorem tax, Gruenloh said hopefully no.

The county adopted its Strategic Plan about a year and a half ago, Gruenloh said. That’s when county leaders realized that infrastructure was something that had to be dealt with over the next several years in light of county growth issues.

“We’ve been extremely focused within the county as to what we’ve been doing to where it ties back to that Strategic Plan,” Gruenloh said.

It was while meeting last year with chambers of commerce and business groups and rejecting lodging and sales taxes that someone asked if county leaders had looked into the “Pay As You Go” program in place in Mobile County.

County officials met with representatives from Mobile County and decided to emulate the plan. In the spring of last year, the county’s legislative delegation said the matter would have to be put to a vote of the people. They put together a bill saying June 3, 2008, would be the date for a vote on the matter.

Then, around August or September of last year the property tax evaluations came out with all the increases and attending turmoil.

“We pretty much had to go with it,” said Gruenloh of the date set for the “Pay As You Go” vote.