The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax will possibly be renewed for Kennesaw voters to act on in November.
SPLOST is a 1% tax that contributes to pre-determined projects that elevate local living conditions. Similar to a sales tax, SPLOST collects 1% on the purchase, sale, rental, use, etc. of personal property. However, the collected money can only be used to repair capital assets and voters must approve each newly imposed project plan.
The Cobb County SPLOST brochure explains how much county taxes currently are and what they go toward. Currently, Cobb County is one of the three lowest sales tax counties in Georgia with it currently being under 7% with 4% of that going toward the state.
SPLOST is not a tax raise. Renewing it would continue the contribution of 1% to school SPLOST and 1% to county SPLOST. Clarifications of what falls under each category are outlined on the Peach County Website.
The renewal would stay in place for five to six years before it would be brought to a vote again. The estimated amount of revenue to be brought in over those years is around $750 million. The planned projects for SPLOST are categorized into Tier One and Tier Two. Projects under Tier Two will only be completed if the estimated revenue is exceeded.
A majority of the revenue from the tax will go towards Parks & Recreation as well as Public Safety Facilities. Some of the projects for 2022 approval include completing phase 2 of the Recreation Center, completing Depot Park, building a new Public Safety Facility, improving the intersection of Swift-Cantrell Park and Old 41 and multiple improvements to Sardis Street. These projects all follow the requirements for SPLOST projects explained by Smith Gambrell and Russel law firm as “major, permanent or long-lived improvements.”
The Cobb County SPLOST Project Bookletoutlines the exact requirements for SPLOST projects by explaining that it must be a Qualified Municipality. This means the project must provide at least 3 of the 12 services they have on their list, including water supply or distribution, fire protection, recreational activities, law enforcement and more.
Without a special purpose tax, many city projects and improvements take a while to make progress, are funded by general funds, or never receive funding. SPLOST takes a while to build up funding since it is only a 1% tax, but having the tax in place allows city governments to sell general obligation bonds. These are bonds not backed by revenue, and back capital overlay projects immediately while using SPLOST to pay the bond back over time. This makes immediate and fast-paced change possible in the city so the government can meet the real-time needs of citizens.
Founded by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia with the goal of funding capital projects, SPLOST has improved counties’ quality of life since 1985. Having dedicated money to go toward improving cities and schools while making all projects be approved by voters helps citizens control what their tax money goes toward while still improving the county at a faster pace.
