Cobb Voters Approve 2016 SPLOST

Cobb County voters have given the county the green light to extend a one penny sales tax which will allow local and county governments to tackle a host of building projects and increase the retention rate of the Cobb County Police Department.

The neck-and-neck battle between voters supporting and opposing the 2016 SPLOST ended late Tuesday evening with supporters earning just under 53 percent of the greater than 200,000 votes cast:

2016 SPLOST

Yes - 52.83% / 110,903
No - 47.17% / 99,012

2016 SPLOST will generate up to $750 million in revenue for the county, which will be used to widen roads, build libraries, and bolster the police department.

The passage of 2016 SPLOST will allow the county to spend $66 million to create a fully staffed department by the end of 2016. Key features of the retention plan include an assigned vehicle program, incentive-based bonus pay, creation of 10 hour shifts, and state of the art equipment to fight crime and solve cases.

2016 SPLOST will also pay for a new police headquarters and evidence building, a new shared training facility, and the repair or upgrading of police precinct buildings.

Cobb’s cities will also get a large chunk of the SPLOST revenue. Here is a breakdown of the projected revenue per city:

• $21,208,827 for Acworth city projects
• $6,725,280 for Austell city projects
• $31,602,891 for Kennesaw city projects
• $58,353,902 for Marietta city projects
• $14,231,720 for Powder Springs city projects
• $52,773,203 for Smyrna city projects

Tight SPLOST races are nothing new in Cobb County; apart from the resounding defeat of the 2012 T-SPLOST, Cobb voters passed the previous county-specific SPLOST in 2011 by a mere 90 votes, adjusted from the initially-reported tally of 79 votes.