SPLOST OVER THE YEARS
Here’s a look at the percentage of Gwinnett County votes in favor of SPLOST since 1985. In all cases except 1985, the vote was for a SPLOST taking effect the following year.
1985: 88.5 percent
1987: 66.5 percent
2004: 65.2 percent
2013: 58.2 percent
2008: 56.1 percent
2000: 55 percent
1996: 53.5 percent
1991: 52.7 percent
1995: 49.5 percent *
* SPLOST referendum failed
Source: Gwinnett County
SOME RESISTANCE
Gwinnett County precincts that voted against the latest SPLOST
Buford, Bogan Park Community Center, 145-136
Buford, Ivy Creek Elementary, 79-75
Lilburn, Berean Baptist Church, 150-142
Lawrenceville, Sweetwater Middle School, 45-35
Lawrenceville, Five Forks Middle School, 58-54
Lawrenceville, North Metro First Baptist Church, 154-132
Norcross, Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church, 83-79
Loganville, South Gwinnett Baptist Church, 100-88
Source: Georgia secretary of state’s office
For an idea of how thoroughly Gwinnett County voters approved renewal of the one-penny special purpose sales tax on Tuesday, consider this: The tax was voted down in only eight of 156 precincts, and the margin of defeat wasn’t larger than 22 votes in any of them.
Overall, the sales tax handily won renewal, with 58.2 percent of the vote. It is the fourth-highest approval percentage of Gwinnett’s nine votes on the special purpose local option sales tax, dating to 1985.
Less than 10 percent of the county’s 381,000 registered voters turned out.
The margin of victory surprised even some of the tax’s staunchest allies, particularly after Gwinnett voters overwhelmingly rejected last year’s regional transportation sales tax referendum. That 10-year, $7.2 billion initiative was defeated by 26 percentage points, and just 29 percent of Gwinnett County voters favored it.
“I figured going in that it would be a toss-up,” Gwinnett Commissioner Tommy Hunter said of Tuesday’s vote. “To me, it was people saying: ‘We see what has been done. We’ve touched it. We’ve walked on it. We’ve driven on it. We’re getting something good for what we’re paying.’”
Gwinnett’s SPLOST program has raised more than $2.5 billion since it first passed. The only time it suffered a defeat was in a 1995 vote; then voters promptly approved it the next year. Over the years, it has paid for a range of things, from the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center and the county’s civic center, to libraries, parks and roads, to police cars and firetrucks.
This year’s version is a three-year tax that is expected to raise $498 million, with about 70 percent going to transportation projects, including road paving, new sidewalks, drainage improvements and more.
The county’s 16 cities get a 21 percent slice of the revenue, while the county also will spend money on public safety equipment, library and senior citizen facilities, water and sewer improvements and more.
There was no significant campaign against the renewal, although the county’s considerable tea party movement did hold a debate and tried to fire up its base on the issue.
David Hancock, a tea party member and congressional candidate in 2012, said he’s not surprised that the renewal passed, but he was surprised by the wide, 16-percentage-point margin.
“I’ve been horrible at predicting, but I thought the momentum with the T-SPLOST vote, the economy being what it is, and the low turnout, (that) people opposed would have turned out in larger numbers,” Hancock said. “I also thought general mistrust of government would have played a role.”
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll after last summer’s transportation SPLOST found that issue played a significant role in its defeat, with 60 percent of people in metro Atlanta thinking not many public officials are honest.
Community activist Brenda Lee said she has never voted in favor of the county’s SPLOST program, and said she was proud that three of the precincts that voted the measure down were near her. A majority of people in Lee’s precinct approved the tax.
“We have a pretty good sense of community around here,” Lee said. “This is our southern Gwinnett core, and we all just don’t believe in taxing ourselves. We’re for conservative government, less government.”
But Mike Levengood and Paige Havens, the co-chairs for the pro-SPLOST campaign, said the widespread support shows county officials have done a good job of spreading around the tax revenue.
“It’s not just in the cities, it’s not just in the unincorporated areas,” said Levengood, an attorney who was co-chairman of the 2009 Engage Gwinnett project that studied the county’s delivery of services amid declining revenues. One of Engage Gwinnett’s recommendations was to continue using SPLOST to fund building projects.
“People find value in it throughout the county,” added Havens.
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