A county road crew works to repair base failures on School House Road in western Limestone County in March.

One of Limestone County’s commissioners is again proposing options to take existing and future revenue and divert it to roads.

District 4 Commissioner Ben Harrison has offered similar resolutions in the past, but his fellow commissioners have yet to support him. He plans to present his plans at Monday’s commission meeting, and he hopes — this time — he’ll receive support.

One of Harrison’s resolutions establishes an equalization fund and sets the district with the highest road funding per mile as the standard, which is currently District 2. That district has the fewest amount of road miles (185.3), but receives the same amount of revenue the other districts do ($1.18 million). That equates to roughly $6,416.51 per mile.

Revenue directed to the fund would be distributed to the other three districts based on the percentage of total miles each district has. After all three districts have reached the standard, all funds in excess would be distributed to each district based on total road miles.

The percentage would be in favor of Harrison’s district because he has the most road miles at 331.

The last time Harrison introduced a similar resolution in January 2018, District 2 Commissioner Steve Turner voted against it because he believed Harrison’s plan would have taken money out of his district and disregarded the fact his roads see more traffic.

Harrison’s other resolutions involve diverting money away from the Huntsville Hospital System and the Simplified Sellers Use Tax, known by some as the “Amazon” tax. Both are ideas floated by Harrison previously, and both have been nixed by commissioners.

Harrison would like his fellow commissioners to approve a resolution asking the local legislative delegation to draft legislation that would divert TVA-in-lieu-of-tax money from the Huntsville Hospital System and instead put it in the equalization fund. A legislative act gives the system $350,000 in TVA-in-lieu-of-tax dollars, which is then matched with $150,000 from the county.

“No other county sends TVA-in-lieu-of-tax to a hospital, and it’s Huntsville Hospital,” Harrison told his fellow commissioners. “That’s a $1.4 billion operation, and they’ve got a virtual monopoly across North Alabama.”

Harrison’s recommendation on the Simplified Sellers Use Tax would be to cap it at $500,000. Anything over that would be put into the equalization fund for roads.

He estimated the tax would generate $760,000 in revenue in the upcoming fiscal year, which would leave $260,000 for roads, if the resolution passed.

Turner recommended Harrison look at other means of funding the roads, including additional cuts in appropriations to groups like the Athens-Limestone County Public Library. Harrison serves on the library’s foundation board.

Harrison instead said the county should look at what it gives to “the metropolis on Elm Street,” he said, referring to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office.

“There are efficiencies that can be made,” he said. “It was said in a meeting that the next sheriff won’t get that kind of money, so why are we giving the current sheriff that kind of money? In government, there’s always ways to run more efficiently.”

Proposed budgets for the Sheriff’s Office and Limestone County Jail, which are set to be approved Monday by the commission, are a combined $9.3 million.

In talking about other counties, Harrison said Lauderdale County takes $4.1 million from its general fund and puts it into roads. He asked why Limestone County can’t do the same.

Chairman Collin Daly pointed out Lauderdale County is on the unit system, which means gasoline tax revenue — which is how road projects are funded — is pooled into one fund and projects are assigned based on need. The majority of counties in Alabama are on a unit system, though Limestone, Madison and Morgan counties are among the 16 that still use the district system.

Daly told Harrison he should present a comparison with another county with a similar makeup and revenue stream as Limestone.

The commission will meet at 10 a.m. Monday on the second floor of the Limestone County Courthouse.