Investing in Our Quality of Life

Roads – Multi-Use Paths – Public Safety – Parks and Recreation – Dam/Spillway

SPLOST Defined
The acronym SPLOST stands for “Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax” and is a specific tax rate for a specific period of time. Counties and cities can use SPLOST funds for specific capital projects.

If the 2017 SPLOST is approved by the voters, the sales tax in Fayette County will increase from 6¢ on every dollar spent to 7¢. Currently Fayette County is one of only seven counties in Georgia (out of 159) that have a sales tax less than 7¢.

In Georgia, the State receives 4¢ of the sales taxes collected in every county. A 1¢ Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) is shared among a county and any of its municipalities based on an agreed-upon formula. LOST funds can be used by local governments as part of their General Fund operating expenses. Fayette County also has a 1¢, voter-approved E-SPLOST, which is invested solely for use by the Board of Education. This comprises our current 6¢ sales tax.

Of the counties immediately surrounding Fayette County, Clayton collects an 8¢ sales tax while Coweta, Spalding, Fulton, DeKalb, Henry, and Pike Counties all collect 7¢. This is important because the extra penny of sales taxes funds only projects in the counties in which they are collected, no matter where the buyer paying the tax lives. Because Fayette County has a lower sales tax than the surrounding areas, we lose tax revenue every time a Fayette County resident shops or eats out in another County because we cannot recoup that tax when residents of other counties dine or shop here.

If approved by the voters, the 2017 Fayette County SPLOST will be invested in capital projects throughout the County in the areas of transportation, public safety, infrastructure, and parks and recreation. The projects will be defined in an intergovernmental agreement that includes the specific list of projects for each city and the County.

What happens with surplus funds collected?
The actual cost of Tier 1 SPLOST projects may be less than budgeted or the City may collect more SPLOST funds than originally budgeted. "Tier 2" projects are defined as being approved for funding or completion only if funding becomes available due to cost savings on Tier 1 projects or increased collected revenues. So, all Tier 1 projects would have to be completed and any funds leftover from Tier 1 may be used to complete any listed Tier 2 projects.