State ethics commission ‘reviewing’ Macon industrial authority’s $50k donation promoting sales tax

The state’s ethics commission is scrutinizing campaign donations from Macon’s industrial authority to determine whether the authority violated campaign finance laws.

The Georgia Ethics Commission told The Melody it is reviewing a $50,000 contribution the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority made to a ballot committee formed to promote the 2025 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST.) The sales tax was overwhelmingly approved by voters March 18, although only about 5.2% of registered voters cast a ballot.

“We are aware of the contribution made from the Macon-Bibb Industrial Authority to the Ballot Committee and are reviewing to determine if any violations of state law occurred,” Haley Barrett, spokesperson for the state commission, wrote in an email to The Melody.

Campaign finance disclosures show the authority contributed $50,000 to Go Big Macon, a ballot committee that raised a total of $85,000 for efforts to promote a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax to collect $450 million for capital projects, public safety, road work, economic development and private sector growth.

Barrett said public agencies are prohibited from making political donations to campaigns including candidates, PACs and independent committees. It was unclear whether public agencies are allowed to contribute to ballot committees.

Kevin Brown, the industrial authority’s attorney, said the authority board has contributed to ballot committees promoting the SPLOST since the 1980s.

“The authority doesn’t support any political candidates but for the SPLOST, the industrial authority uses non-taxpayer dollars from private companies,” Brown told The Melody. “It does not use taxpayer dollars for any sort of support.” 

Theron Ussery, chairman of Go Big Macon and longtime member of the county SPLOST committee, said a question about whether the authority’s contribution would come from taxpayer dollars was raised during one of the committee’s meetings. He said the authority gets about $2.5 million in SPLOST money each year.

The committee was assured the contribution would come from private dollars only. 

“My understanding is that it had been approved by the attorneys,” Ussery said. “I didn’t see anything wrong with it.”

MBCIA was created in 1962 through an act of the General Assembly. A provision included in the enabling legislation states the authority can act like a private and public corporation. Brown said the authority is “unique” in that way.

The provision, though it does not specifically mention political contributions, enables the authority to “collect private dollars for purposes like this,” Brown said. “I don’t ever disagree with the ethics board.”

The authority had been in existence for a dozen years before the state adopted the 1974 Campaign Financing Disclosure Act, which created procedures and established rules regarding the public disclosure of contributions and expenditures made in connection with political campaigns. 

Brown said the authority has long contributed to committees promoting the SPLOST but this year was the first instance it has done so directly and not by “leveraging dollars” in a partnership with the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. 

“We didn’t have any other private dollars this time,” Brown said. “It was time sensitive and it was also that we’d already gotten the dollars from private companies.”

Brown said the authority has garnered a lot of private money through fees it charges companies for work such as administering loans. 

“The authority keeps a separate account for private dollars collected,” Brown said. 

The authority’s executive director, Stephen Adams, did not respond to multiple inquiries from The Melody.

The authority’s meeting minutes are not on its website and it is unclear whether the contribution was approved by its board members, which include: Mayor Lester Miller; Dwight Jones, CEO of Ocmulgee Fields Inc. who also serves on the Macon Water Authority Board; Ron Shipman, the CEO of the Macon Water Authority; Ember Bishop Bentley, chief of staff and government relations officer for Middle Georgia State University; chairman Robert E. Fountain Jr., owner of Fountain Enterprises LLC and Cassandra Washington, executive director of career, technical and agricultural education for the Bibb County School District. 

Brown said if the authority spends more than $25,000 that isn’t budgeted, the board has to ratify the expense, though “it’s in the authority of the chair and executive director” to spend $50,000 or less.