This story has been updated.

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By Zoe Seiler, Jaedon Mason and Sara Amis

DeKalb County, GA — Voters in DeKalb County will see two ballot measures this November – an extension of the Equalized Homestead Option Sales Tax, and a one-penny sales tax for capital improvements known as the special purpose local option sales tax. Some cities in DeKalb County are looking to use their SPLOST funding for transportation and stormwater projects, among other capital needs.

In DeKalb County, EHOST and SPLOST go hand-in-hand. Both referendums have to be approved by voters in order for EHOST and SPLOST to be extended. If one measure fails, so does the other.

Voters first approved the EHOST and SPLOST in 2017. SPLOST I will expire in March, and SPLOST II will begin in April if it is approved by voters this November.

EHOST is expected to save taxpayers $1 billion over the next six years and SPLOST is expected to generate $850 million for capital improvements like parks, libraries, and senior centers. The Georgia General Assembly passed a bill this year that allows DeKalb County to use funds from its special purpose local option sales tax toward parks and libraries, in addition to transportation.

The SPLOST distribution is determined based on a city’s population, which leaves the smallest cities in DeKalb County receiving less than 1% of the total funding available. This year, the county and cities have agreed to give the four smallest cities in the county – Avondale Estates, Stone Mountain, Pine Lake, and Lithonia – an additional $2 million.

If SPLOST is approved, it could also mean that some cities will issue a general obligation bond as a way to receive their revenue upfront rather than incrementally over the next six years.

The cities receive SPLOST revenue on a monthly basis, so it would take them six years to collect all of their SPLOST funding, Avondale Estates City Manager Patrick Bryant told Decaturish.

“Because it’s pretty much guaranteed revenue, you can bond it, which means you essentially borrow against it,” Bryant said. “We could do a bond issuance of the amount that we are expected to get and as the revenue comes in on a monthly basis, you pay off that bond note. That way you get the money upfront instead of having to wait to collect it.”

Ahead of the election, each city and the county has to identify categories of projects and assign dollar amounts to them, but do not have to identify specific SPLOST projects before the Nov. 7 election.

Here’s a look at how some of the cities in DeKalb are proposing to use their SPLOST funding:

Avondale Estates

Funding from the special purpose local option sales tax is included in the city of Avondale Estates’ capital projects budget.

For SPLOST II, the city anticipates receiving about $4.3 million in funding and is expecting to get another $2 million in intergovernmental revenue from DeKalb County. The city has proposed to use SPLOST II for road or stormwater infrastructure.

“We have the remaining priority projects in our stormwater priority plan that would be the phase two and phase three of the Dunwick project and the Kensington project, plus three additional projects that we are planning to move to concept design for. Those projects would be Wiltshire at Sussex, Wiltshire at Berkeley and Lakeshore and Hess [Drive],” Bryant said.

The city also proposes using SPLOST II funds to replace Franklin Street and construct new downtown roads. The budget proposes spending about $6.3 million in SPLOST II funding.

If SPLOST is approved, it would also mean the city will issue a general obligation bond for $4 million of its SPLOST revenue. The city would not bond about $300,000 and that would be used to pay the interest on the bond.

Clarkston

Decatur

The city of Decatur would receive about $30.5 million, which is about $5 million annually, under SPLOST II.

Over the six-year SPLOST period the city will continue to pay debt service for the public works building, fire station No. 1, the Decatur Recreation Center, and the Beacon Municipal Center which totals $12 million, Decatur City Manager Andrea Arnold said during the Decatur City Commission meeting on Aug. 7.

Decatur is looking at two categories, which are transportation, and cultural and recreational facilities. The cultural and recreational facilities category would capture recommendations coming out of the newly adopted downtown master plan and parks and recreation master plan.

About $9.3 million would go toward transportation projects, which could include roads, sidewalks, or bike lanes.

About $4.1 million could fund cultural facilities projects, and about $4.9 million could go toward recreational facilities.

“This is where we would easily capture a couple of the top projects that came out of the downtown master plan and the parks and recreation master plan,” Arnold said. “In particular there’s the recommendation for…the performing arts venue or the stage up on the Square, also there’s an accessible play area in the downtown [master plan], most likely replacing the turf.”

She added that about $3.5 million has been identified for the purchase of open land, vacant land, and park space.

The city commission has not set a list of projects that would use SPLOST funding. However, the resolution notes the projects may include land, equipment, vehicles, facilities, and other capital costs. Arnold also told Decaturish that she anticipates the city commission will discuss SPLOST projects at its annual strategic planning retreat in January.

If SPLOST is approved, it would also mean the city may issue a general obligation bond for up to $10 million of its SPLOST revenue.

“All this does is it will allow us to borrow up to $10 million. We haven’t made that decision,” Arnold told Decaturish.

Stone Mountain

The city of Stone Mountain held a series of public table talks to decide on SPLOST II priorities. There was unanimous alignment from the public on the top three infrastructure priorities, and the city recently decided to allocate the $7.7 million in SPLOST II funds according to the areas the citizens expressed.

The city voted to allocate $3 million to road maintenance and resurfacing, $3 million to surface water drainage and stormwater maintenance and $1 million to recreational facilities including but not limited to trails and parks.

The additional $2 million awarded to small cities will be used for a stormwater assessment and implementation of solutions based on its findings.

Stone Mountain still has unspent SPLOST I dollars and recently announced a street resurfacing project to continue to make use of them.

Tucker

Tucker anticipates receiving about $44 million in SPLOST II funding, over half of which will be spent on the city’s new roads and stormwater responsibilities that it took over from DeKalb County on July 1. About $20 million will be spent on capital road improvement and resurfacing, while $3.5 million will be spent on stormwater infrastructure.

The rest will be spent on trails, sidewalks, and bike paths ($13.6 million) including expansion of Tucker’s walking paths, and capital outlay for parks ($6.6 million).

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