SPECIAL LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX (SPLOST)

Although the text of the law explicitly refers to the SPLOST as a county special purpose local option sales tax, the tax is legally and technically a special district tax. Code section 48-8-110.1 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) cites the special district provision of the Georgia Constitution (Article IX, Section II, Paragraph VI) as the authority creating the special districts. As in the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), the geographic boundaries of each special district are the same as the geographic boundaries of each county. The practical effect of this change is to ensure that municipalities may legally receive SPLOST proceeds, either with or without an intergovernmental agreement.

LIST OF PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN OVER THE YEARS BY THE CITY OF SANDERSVILLE

Qualified Municipalities

To be eligible for SPLOST proceeds, a city must be a .qualified municipality. Qualified municipality is defined in O.C.G.A. § 48-8-110(4). A city must provide at least three services out of a list of 12 services to be qualified. The 12 services on the list are:

In addition to services provided directly by a municipality, services provided by contract count as services provided for purposes of qualification.

Selection of Projects

Only counties have the authority to call for a SPLOST referendum. Once a county government decides to call for a SPLOST (but prior to the call itself and prior to the vote of the county to impose the tax), the county must provide written notice, either through the mail or through some other method of delivery, to the chief elected official of each qualified municipality within the special district. This notice must communicate the date, time, location and purpose of a meeting during which representatives from the county and each qualified municipality will discuss capital projects that could be included in the SPLOST referendum. These projects may include municipally owned or operated capital projects. The notice must be delivered at least 10 days prior to the date of the meeting and the meeting must be held at least 30 days before the call for the referendum.

Types of Projects

Only certain types of projects are eligible under the law for SPLOST funding. The types of projects that may be funded through a SPLOST are:

• Roads, streets, and bridges, which may include sidewalks and bicycle paths;
• A capital outlay project in the special district consisting of a courthouse or administrative buildings; a civic center; a local or regional jail, correctional institution, or other detention facility; a library; a coliseum; local or regional solid waste handling facilities; local or regional recovered materials processing facilities; or any combination of such projects;
• A capital outlay project to be operated by a joint authority or authorities of the county and one or more qualified municipalities within the special district;
• A capital outlay project to be owned or operated or both by the county, one or more qualified municipalities in the special district, one or more local authorities
• in the special district, or any combination thereof;
• A capital outlay project consisting of a cultural, recreational, or historic facility or a facility for some combination of these purposes;
• A water or sewer capital outlay project, or combination thereof, to be owned or operated by a county water and sewer district and one or more qualified municipalities in the special district;
• The retirement of existing general obligation debt of the county, one or more qualified municipalities, or any combination thereof;
• A capital outlay project within the special district consisting of public safety or airport facilities, or both, or related capital equipment used to operate such facilities, or any combination of such purposes;
• A capital outlay project within the special district consisting of capital equipment for use in voting in official elections or referenda;
• A capital outlay project within the special district consisting of any transportation facility designed for the transportation of people or goods, including but not
• limited to railroads, port and harbor facilities, mass transportation facilities, or any
• combination thereof;
• A capital outlay project within the special district consisting of a hospital or hospital facility owned by the county, a qualified municipality or a hospital
• authority and operated by such county, municipality, or hospital authority, or by a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization through a lease or contract with the county,
• municipality or hospital authority; or
• Any combination of two or more of the above projects.

City- owned and operated projects are fully eligible for SPLOST funding just as county owned and operated projects. Thus city water systems, sewer systems, other utility systems, stormwater facilities, drainage projects, and greenspace could all be funded through SPLOST if approved by the voters. Note also that the fourth category listed above (and in the statute at O.C.G.A. § 48-8-111(a)(1)(D)) is extremely broad and authorizes a wide variety of capital outlay projects.

SPLOST revenue may only be spent on voter-approved capital projects. Spending SPLOST revenue on maintenance and operations is a violation of the law.