The Douglas County Taxpayers Coallition is seeking support from members of the General Assembly to make changes to the GA law regarding Special Purpose Local Option Sales Taxes, or SPLOST.

The Proposed Changes are:

Limiting SPLOST Ballot Referendums only to the November General Election ballot.

The November General Election has the highest participation of voters. This would place the Special SPLOST Tax proposals only before the greatest number of voters.  This also eliminates a need for costly (tens of thousands of dollars) special elections held at other times of the year.

Changing the description of the SPLOST on ballot referendums to the following; listing level 1 projects and estimated funding, followed by all other projects and their respective estimated funding.

This is about fairness and providing accurate information to the voters in order to make an informed decision. 

Contact your representatives and tell them to support this proposal.

January 17, 2007

To: The Douglas County Georgia Legislative Delegation

Dear Legislators,

The Douglas County Taxpayers Coalition is seeking your help in sponsoring a bill to amend Georgia Code 48-8-111 relating to Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST);

• To provide that SPLOST referendums shall only be places on general ballots in November so as to allow the maximum number of voters to participate in the tax decision making process;

• To provide that “level one” projects shall first be listed first in the ballot language;

• To provide that the amount of estimated revenue of each project shall be listed after each project;

Why is this change needed?

First of all, last year three straw polls were placed on the ballot concerning this issue in Georgia. In Cobb County the Republican Party placed the question on the July ballot and received overwhelming support. 82% of GOP voters approved the measure to allow placement of SPLOST on general election ballots only. We can only assume Democrats, Libertarians and Independents favor this measure also.

SPLOST can serve as a valuable tool to raise needed revenue for capitol improvements of a county. However, last year in Douglas County, officials choose to draft the ballot language in a manner that many voters found to be misleading, confusing, and did not reflect the true nature of the impact SPLOST will have. This confusion may have contributed to the defeat of the tax by the voters.

Since “Level One” Projects shall by law be funded first before other projects can be funded, the proposed projects should be listed on the ballot according to the appropriate designated level of that project and the amount of funds proposed for each project.

Example: The County is requesting the approval of a SPLOST for $150 million dollars. Of which, $100 million is proposed for single “Level One” project such as a “criminal justice center”. However on the ballot, the officials listed the “Level Two” projects first, projects such as – bike paths – sidewalks – equestrian venue. Then the level one project was listed at the bottom of the ballot language as “and a new jail”.

This is clearly an attempt by public officials to hide the more “controversial” issues last while listing the “popular” and less costly issues first.

Requiring counties to list “level one” projects first and listing the corresponding revenues, voters will be better informed as to the true meaning of the ballot question.

We feel this reform measure will benefit all stakeholders and give the voters of this state a more accurate description of the SPLOST ballot question.

It should be noted that local governments are advised by resource materials that it is in their best interest to place SPLOST votes on special ballots so that the minimum number of voters participate, usually around 5-8% of voters. We believe it should be the roll of the government to place important tax issue on a ballot where the maximum number of voters participate or about 35-60% of voters.

The citizens need your help in this matter and your support is much appreciated. If you have any questions, please contact me. Thank you for your service to people of Douglas County and the State of Georgia.

Respectfully Submitted,

James Bell
404-452-4668

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