Time to secure more votes if extension of penny sales tax fails

Every purchase made in Polk County comes with a penny sales tax attached to it, and if local officials get the support of voters, those pennies will be collected through 2032 and fund a variety of projects in the future.

Managers and the financial officers for the Cities of Cedartown and Rockmart, as well as Polk County gathered earlier in the week on Monday, April 10 for the second meeting to settle on where the entities stand on pushing forward on a new SPLOST initiative to go onto the November ballot.

The moving parts to get that completed before a June deadline requested by the Board of Elections office will mean that the cities and county boards will have to settle their differences on how to divvy up the share of the SPLOST collections, estimated by the time they come around to be worth $65 million over a six-year period starting in 2026.

Local residents have approved of SPLOST packages in the past without much pushback all the way through to the 2020 package. The last time it was up for vote in 2018, it passed with 61% of the support of Polk County voters during a midterm election year.

Officials noted they are seeking to go ahead and put the SPLOST on the ballot in 2023 to ensure collections will continue and allow for future planning of major projects, but also to have a chance to add it to the ballot in 2024 and/or 2025 if it becomes necessary.

Municipal elections are the reason for this year’s vote in Polk County coming up in November, with Aragon, Cedartown and Rockmart all required to fill seats in the Nov. 7 vote.

Polk County residents overall will get to join those in the cities for this single ballot initiative for the coming election cycle if all the municipal boards vote to approve the intergovernmental agreement to move forward and submit it to the Board of Elections.

Right now, the main focus of the projects will include continued replacement of vehicles in city and county fleets, paving, looking at a Courthouse replacement, providing funds for recreation projects and much more.

The one-cent sales tax is only taken on a six-year basis, and must be voted by local residents to continue the collections.

Those pennies add up, and local municipalities use the funds in a variety of ways. Everything from replacement SUVs for police officers to land improvements to entice industrial development gets packaged into the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax packages each go-around with local governments.

Keeping in line with last year’s negotiated settlement, the county agreed with a small percentage decrease of their share of the revenue to split between Cedartown and Rockmart after doing so last year Local Option Sales Tax percentages. LOST sales tax initiatives don’t require the voters to approve the collections or what projects are being funded.

Expect updates on votes from the Cedartown Commission, Polk County Commission, Rockmart City Council and Aragon City Council on the matter in May.