2020 SPLOST moving ahead with voters’ approval

♦ Forthcoming fund will start in July 2020 after 61 percent approval countywide, collect $32 million for variety of projects

The Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax will continue on in Polk County after voters gave it a thumbs-up during the 2018 midterms.

The $32 million extension will keep SPLOST collections going through the mid-2020s, and will be utilized in several projects by the county and city governments. Voters approved the fund 7,588, or 61.29 percent of the tally to 4,793 or 38.71 percent.

The fund is split four ways between the county and the cities, with the county getting the largest portion followed by Cedartown, Rockmart and Aragon with the smallest.

Revenues from an extension of the onecent sales tax in 2020 seek to generate $17,190,400, or 53.72 percent of the total amount being sought would go to the county.

Funds are being set aside for countywide recreation, public infrastructure improvements, Public Safety facilities, equipment and vehicles, the same for Public Works, Transportation equipment and vehicles, county buildings, facilities and equipment and economic development.

Additionally, the county is seeking to spend $600,000 on quality of life projects for both the Cedartown and Rockmart areas, each splitting the funds in half and committees being formed to determine how best to spend the funds being allocated.

The fund also seeks to generate $7,948,800 or 24.84 percent for the City of Cedartown, who wants to use the money for recreation and parks improvements, municipal infrastructure improvements, municipal equipment a2nd vehicles, technology infrastructure and improvements, public land, building and facilities improvements and municipal debt service.

Rockmart will receive 20.03 percent of the fund or $6,409,600 of the money being sought. The city looks to use their portion of the 2020 SPLOST for municipal infrastructure improvements to water, sewer, collection and distribution systems, municipal buildings, facilities and public use or recreation area improvements, for public safety facilities and equipment improvements, transportation and pedestrian infrastructure improvements and for downtown and small business corridor development and improvements.

The City of Aragon’s portion of the 2020 SPLOST is the smallest and only makes up 1.41 percent of the fund according to the county’s resolution approved in early August. The $451,200 approved for Aragon will seek to use the money for Public Safety and Public Works equipment, along with municipal infrastructure and technology improvements.

SPLOST has a mixed history overall in Polk County, though in different forms. The traditional Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax over the past years has passed – the most recent time before this 2018 vote was during the February 5, 2012 vote where it was approved 61.1 percent (3.360 votes) to 38.8 percent (2,137 votes.)

Voters back then allowed for more than $36.1 million in spending over six years that started in 2014, and will run out two years from now.

The extension approved this year won’t go into effect until 2020, and runs out in 2026.

SPLOST is a useful way to fund efforts otherwise that would cost taxpayers via collections from property taxes and use up budget resources for several useful purposes.

For instance, the latest education SPLOST votes have also passed by good margins, with the latest 2017 E-SPLOST getting a 70.1 percent to 29.9 percent margin (1,442 to 617 votes) in the 2017 referendum. The money being collected is being used to complete school construction projects all across the school district, along with security and technology upgrades.

It’s not a guaranteed way to decrease property taxes and fund big projects, however.

A T-SPLOST sought for approval in the July 2012 saw Polk as part of a Northwest Georgia regional district, and was turned down in an effort to fund road projects to the tune of a $1.4 billion partnership over 10 years. It stood in contrast to the usual treatment voters give to SPLOST locally when it was voted down locally 66 percent to 33 percent (4,392 to 2,236 votes) and in similar patterns across the region.

Only three regions gave the T-SPLOST approval, and still use it to fund infrastructure improvements to roadways.

Past SPLOST projects funded in Polk County as a whole have in recent years included much of the construction costs for the new 911 Operations Center added on to the county’s Emergency Management Agency, and for the new Public Works facility as well.

Technology upgrades, paving funds within and outside the city limits in the area, plus recreation and parks upgrades. Also important uses of SPLOST include items like culvert repairs and vehicle upgrades for public safety and public works departments, as another example.

Several more items are still on the cities and county capital expenditures through the end of the 2020 fund.