2028 Cobb SPLOST project list adopted with late objections

The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday voted 4-1 to adopt a project list for the proposed 2028 Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax extension.

It contains only a few changes from the original proposal, but the last addition in particular set off some differences on the five-member board.

The board will vote in June on establishing a referendum in November for voters to decide on more than $794 million in county government construction and maintenance projects.

They include relocating the East Cobb Library, expanding the Tim D. Lee Senior Center, building a new Cobb State Court building, spending $130 million in road repaving projects and earmarking $60 million for a new infirmary building at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.

But at a voting meeting Tuesday night, a last-minute addition totaling $5 million drew objections from the board’s two Republican members.

JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill opposed shifting that amount of funding from repaving projects for an indoor track facility in South Cobb at the behest of Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.

She’s been wanting to construct such a facility for years, when she was the District 4 commissioner, and added the request prior to Tuesday’s vote.

Gambrill and Birrell said they disliked not only the timing—and without any public feedback as a result—but taking away money from what Gambrill called “a critical infrastructure need.”

The project list first went out for public review in early 2025, without the indoor track listed on it—”and that’s because it didn’t have support” from the board, Gambrill said.

“So I think we are being very disingenuous to the public by making this change.”

She said while she doesn’t support the track project, “I do believe the voters have the right to vote on this referendum. But I also think the voters need to be aware that we are putting on a project that is not properly funded.”

Cupid said the track project was originally on the 2016 SPLOST list, and said her interest didn’t start with that source of funding.

She said there have been other recreational projects that were put on previous lists without a full funding amount.

Cupid added that she approached two commissioners she did not identify who said they would support, and she asked county staff to place the track project on the list “and to please help find some funding sources to put it back into the program.”

She said complaints about a lack of transparency are wrong.

“I have not tried to hide this, I have asked commissioners for support,” Cupid said, calling the project important to “adding to the recreation portfolio of this county.”

The final list includes another shift of $5 million by Birrell, from the proposed relocation of the East Cobb Library, to address flooding issues on Columns Drive and for maintenance and improvements at county parks in District 3.

Cobb’s cities also must finalize their project lists. The 2028 Cobb SPLOST, if adopted by voters, would continue a one-percent sales tax that would collect an estimated $1.15 billion over six years, starting on Jan. 1, 2028.

Related: