Selling the Cobb SPLOST renewal with a back-to-basics theme

Tritt property, Cobb 2022 SPLOST list

Officially, those in Cobb County government can’t openly push for the renewal of the county’s Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax that’s on the ballot this year.

What’s being called the 2022 Cobb SPLOST—for the year when a new sales tax collection period would begin—doesn’t have much in the way of big-ticket items, such as new facilities, upgrades or acquisitions.

Instead, the vast majority of the $750 million in spending over six years (down from an original estimate of $810 million) would go to transportation projects, public safety improvements and community amenities, including more park space and development.

Those major items include an $8 million earmark to complete acquisition of 24 acres of land owned by Wylene Tritt next to East Cobb Park.

It’s the most expensive item on a lengthy list of “community impact projects” that the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved for the 2022 project list in May.

Another project on the list is $4 million for the repurposing of Shaw Park in Northeast Cobb and a replacement for the nearby Cobb Fire Station No. 12.

(Here’s a summary of the proposed projects; and a more detailed look at what’s in the 2022 package.)

Nearly half of funding on that list would go for transportation and road improvement projects. The rest of the projects would be funded accordingly:

$82 million for public safety
$46 million in countywide projects
$32 million for community impact projects
$27.8 million for public services (parks, libraries)
$18 million combined for projects in Cobb’s six cities
$4 million for Cobb Sheriff’s Office improvements

While commissioners and official county communications to the public are noting that the SPLOST extension is on the ballot, the information is objective, for the most part.

“We can’t advocate for it,” Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said in an August interview with East Cobb News.

Before the SPLOST officially was approved for referendum, the county held several town halls that became virtual due to COVID-19 closures.

As Cobb voters are turning out heavily in early and absentee voting, county messages on its social media platforms, e-mails and website have been regularly reminding voter of what current SPLOSTs and the current one have yielded.

A video summary opens with the reminder that “this is not a new tax!” and that the current collection period doesn’t end this year, on Dec. 31, 2020.

In recent days the county has been posting on its Facebook page a “countdown” of its “Top 10” list of SPLOST projects over time, including the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that opened at the end of 2017.

SPLOST critics like to point out the project list has become a “slush fund” that defies the term “special use.”

We heard from such a reader over the weekend, who wrote in to say that “SPLOST funds cannot be used for maintenance and repair.”

It’s been estimated that nearly 90 percent of Cobb DOT’s budget comes in SPLOST funds for just those purposes, which form the backbone of the items on the 2022 wish list.

Boyce was mindful of how the Atlanta Transportation SPLOST went down to heavy defeat in 2012, saying that those pushing for that tax disregarded what they were hearing from voters.

Even in spite of the disconnected nature of virtual town halls and indirect feedback in recent months, he said he feels confident that “we’ve done our homework.”