Voters will be getting a chance to decide on whether to accept the request from local governments for an extension of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or whether they will wait until the deadline gets a little closer.

The Aragon City Council complete the round robin of approvals needed from municipal governing boards in Polk County to get SPLOST put onto the ballot, with an intergovernmental agreement also given the thumbs up in the process to boot. The Aragon Council’s makeup meeting on May 24 sealed the deal between local governments, and once signatures are all filled out the request to put it on the ballot then goes to the Elections office.

This year’s round of voting for local spots on commissions and counsels now becomes a countywide affair once the paperwork is completed with the Elections office. The ballot question put before voters will determine whether the SPLOST is extended past its current 2026 deadline and allow for another six years of collections to total an estimated $64 million brought in over that time.

The County will get the largest piece of the SPLOST pie at 51% of the total, or $32.64 million with the caveat that some of the funds are pushed back to the cities to help fund recreation costs. The City of Cedartown will get the next largest share at 26% or $16.64 million. Rockmart will receive 21.59% of the collections totaling just over $13.8 million.

Aragon gets the smallest portion leftover at 1.41% or $902,400.

The vote on May 24 during the city’s makeup meeting also saw the city approve their agreement to hold local elections in November for city council.

Both votes were unanimous.

If approved by voters on the November 7 ballot this year, SPLOST 2026 will begin collections on July 1 three years from now. The current 2020 SPLOST continues to collect and municipal governments across the county use the funds in a variety of ways, from new vehicle purchases for public safety and public works, technology upgrades, facilities, and much more. SPLOST takes a penny from each dollar of purchases to apply specifically to local projects.

There’s also the Local Option Sales Tax, or LOST, negotiated last year. The governments can take those pennies off each dollar purchase without the approval of local voters, but still divide the proceeds.

In both cases, the City of Aragon received the smallest portion due to their substantially lower footprint and population compared to Rockmart, Cedartown and the County.