Cobb taxpayers’ pennies will head to the municipal governments for another six years, starting in 2016.
In unofficial results Tuesday, voters approved Cobb County’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that will raise more than $750 million for a range of building projects, from road improvements to relieve congestion to new libraries.
The vote was neck-in-neck throughout the night, with the tax widening its margin slightly with each new batch of precinct results tallied.
With all 145 precincts reporting, 110,903, or 52.83 53 percent, voted to extend the special purpose local option sales tax for another six years, compared to 99,012, or 47,17 percent, voting against the renewal.
The tax renewal will be used for a variety of projects, including providing the county’s six cities with a combined $185 million; buying public safety equipment; building a county police headquarters, fire station and libraries; improving parks; and buying emergency response radios and building three towers.
A tight race over SPLOST is nothing new in Cobb, where voters approved tax renewals in 2011 and 2005 by just 100 votes each. Overall, the6 tax has been rejected by Cobb voters four of nine times since 1981 — and that doesn’t include a resounding defeat of the 2012 regional transportation sales tax.
The one-percent sales tax would keep Cobb’s rate at percent — 4 percent for the state; 1 percent for schools; and 1 percent for municipal governments.
However, this year’s vote was different than the previous two county-wide votes, in that it was held in a general election. Commission Chairman Tim Lee had promised voters a general election referendum because of its higher voter turnout.
The current sales tax expires on Dec. 31, 2015.
Justin O’Dell, co-chairman of the pro-SPLOST campaign Secure Cobb’s Future, called the apparent result affirmation that “this county is moving in the right direction.”
“Cobb County will continue to be the home of low taxes, responsible government, solid infrastructure and investment in a business community that is moving forward,” he said.
The pro-SPLOST campaign had raised 30 times more money than the campaign against the tax, according to October finance reports. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that the majority of the $89,800 raised came from companies that would benefit from the tax — mostly engineering and construction companies that have made a collective $58 million in county contracts over the past two years.
Lance Lamberton, leader of the anti-tax campaign, had hoped transparency issues over the handling of the Braves stadium and questions over whether a controversial new transit system was on the sales tax project list would sink the tax.
“Regardless of all the stuff that has happened, a small majority of voters didn’t connect that to” the tax, he said.
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