Public safety infrastructure in Cobb County would get a substantial overhaul if the Cobb Special-Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for county government (SPLOST) is renewed by voters later this year.
A draft project list for the six-year, $810 million 2022 SPLOST collection and other information has been released by the county as a schedule of 20 open houses gets underway Tuesday at the Piedmont Church in Northeast Cobb.
The open house takes place from 6-8 p.m. The church is located at 570 Piedmont Road. Citizens can view the proposed projects, offer feedback on them and ask county staff about them as well.
The SPLOST, if renewed, would succeed the current 2016 SPLOST, which expires on Dec. 31, 2021. The one-percent sales tax pays for a wide variety of government projects, including transportation, public safety, parks, libraries, information services, property management, community centers and senior services.
Each of Cobb’s six cities would also collect sales-tax funds for projects in their municipalities. The 2022 SPLOST would be collected through Dec. 31, 2027.
The draft list (you can read through it here and see an overview here) includes $18 million for renovating the former Lockheed Georgia Employees Credit Union building on Fairground Street in Marietta for a new Cobb Police headquarters, and for a new police training center and firing range.
That’s part of a $82 million tab to be spent on public safety under the 2022 SPLOST.
Another $24 million would be spent for renovating fire training facilities, and to build a new Fire Station No. 12 to replace the existing building on Brackett Road in Northeast Cobb, near Shaw Park.
Replacing radio public safety equipment would cost $16 million, and a new Cobb animal shelter is pegged at $15 million.
Replacing police vehicles and building a new E-911 center would come in at $10 million each.
The biggest chunk of SPLOST spending, nearly $361 million, would be for Cobb DOT projects, with $227 million for repavings alone, along with bridge repairs, traffic management, and sidewalk improvements countywide.
The principal traffic projects in East Cobb would be $3.9 million to improve the intersection of Holly Springs Road and Post Oak Tritt Road, $2.4 million for Canton Road corridor improvements, and $701,500 to improve the Shallowford Road-Gordy Parkway intersection.
In the category of what’s called “community impact projects” is a line item for the purchase of additional Tritt property next to East Cobb Park.
Last year, Cobb commissioners spent $8.3 million to buy 29.7 acres from Wylene Tritt, with the possibility of purchasing more.
She owns 54 acres that she had tentatively agreed to sell for a senior-living project that was denied by commissioners following community opposition.
Tritt and Isakson Living had agreed on a $20 million purchase price, and both later sued the county.
The SPLOST draft list line item indicates only “TBD” in a purchase price column next to “Acquire Tritt Property.”
Another $5 million would be dedicated to repurposing Shaw Park, and $3 million would go to construction of the new Ebenezer Downs Park in Northeast Cobb.
Another $24 million would be earmarked for Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, including a variety of renovations and upgrades at Sewell Park, Fullers Park, Terrell Mill Park, Hyde Farm, the Mountain View Aquatic Center, Noonday Creek Park and The Art Place.
Paving work would be included for East Cobb Park, Fullers Park and Terrell Mill Park and video surveillance cameras would be installed at several Cobb library branches, including the Mountain View Regional Library.
The Cobb County SPLOST Renewal Page has more information, including dates and times for the open houses.
In East Cobb, those events will be on April 1 at the East Cobb Library, April 14 at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center and May 5 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
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It’s not a penny tax or a one cent tax, it’s a one PERCENT tax.
A penny is a dinky little copper coin most people won’t bend over to pick up when they see one laying on the ground in the Kroger parking lot. Calling it a penny or one cent tax trivializes its true cost making folks more likely to vote for it. After all, who could possibly object to a penny? Liberals typically package sales tax increases that way and left-leaning reporters go right along with it.
A one percent tax increase on the other hand is $5.00 more on a new computer, $7.00 on a good TV, $10 on an iPhone and $15.00 on a washer-dryer combo set at The Home Depot. Back when we paid sales tax directly on a new car, it was $300 more for your average new set of wheels.