A special penny tax will be back on the Oglethorpe County ballot on Nov. 3.
The special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) is a 1% sales tax on any taxable product purchased in the county. It passed in the 2022 Georgia special election with 2,899 votes in favor (75%).
The funds from the tax are split into halves and allocated to public works and public safety departments for capital purchases, county administrator Jason Lewis said. He added the SPLOST special penny — the penny per dollar collected and then spent in the county — must be used on the projects outlined in the referendum.
“So when folks pull the lever, they’ll know exactly what that money is going to,” Lewis said. “It’s not something that can be necessarily reallocated to something completely different than what they were told that it would be spent on.”
There are special pennies for the SPLOST, Special-purpose local-option sales tax for Education (ESPLOST), Special-purpose local-option sales tax for Transportation (TSPLOST), local-option sales tax (LOST), Floating Local Option Sales Tax (FLOST) and state tax.
The total county’s sales tax rate is 9%, and Lewis said each special penny produces approximately $1.2 million per year in SPLOST revenue for the county.
Public works and public safety departments including EMS, volunteer fire departments, the sheriff’s office, Emergency Management Agency (EMA), the coroner’s office and 911 are aided by SPLOST. The departments have used the funds to buy patrol cars, ambulances, heavy equipment, quick response vehicles, blood products for EMS and cardiac monitors.
“These are huge ticket items that are 100% necessary,” Lewis said. “We’re able to plan for them out of this SPLOST penny.”
SPLOST is up for renewal every five years. If it is renewed on Nov. 3, it will be the fourth time since it was implemented in 2012.
Lewis said the county would be in a “capital purchase crisis” if SPLOST isn’t renewed. SPLOST provides “better healthcare” and “better public safety response,” Lewis said.
“Our people need good, safe equipment to provide service with,” he said. “I think that’s where this SPLOST penny is everything. It’s so important.”
If this tax method wasn’t used, the county would need to raise property taxes to fund capital improvements.
District 5 Commissioner Tracy Norman said property owners typically prefer a sales tax because “it spreads it out further than just the property owners in the county.”
“I think anything that takes something off the property owners is good within reason,” tax commissioner Dawn Scarborough said.
Norman urged residents to spend money inside county lines to increase SPLOST funds. Interestingly, if a resident purchases something online from a different county, the sales tax still goes to Oglethorpe County.
“Anytime they can spend money in this county and not somewhere else, it actually helps us to reduce the overall effect of the property tax,” Norman said.